Like Night and Day
by Sunset Fever
Summary: AUChanged future. 16 year old Chris gets a new charge with enough secrets to put even Future Chris to shame. As evil threatens to finally overwhelm good, secrets are revealed and loyalties called into question. Please R&R!
1. The Midnight Jingle

_Hi everyone, this is my first charmedfic, so please don't be too mean! (I'm even open to flames...anything helps!)_

_This is basically an AU of the changed future, so traditionalists hit the back button now._

_Here's a brief setup: Chris and Wyatt are 16 and 18, respectively._

_Leo is headmaster of Magic School (He was killed in a demon attack but was allowed to become an earth-bound Elder of sorts, effectively and ironically replacing Gideon). Paige is a professor there...sorry, I just liked that idea best.._

_This story is somewhat Chriscentric, in the sense that he is the main character, but you see much less of him than I'd orginally intended..._

**Summary:**16 year old Chris gets a new charge with enough secrets to put even Future Chris to shame. Speaking of him, he may have changed _a_ future, but he didn't change _all_ of them. As evil threatens to finally overwhelm good, secrets are revealed and loyalties called into question.

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Charmed or any related properties.**

_Now without further ado, the first chapter! Hope you enjoy._

_**The Midnight Jingle**_

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Chris sat bolt-upright in his bed, green eyes searching the darkness of his room for whatever had woken him. A head-splitting jingle. _Stupid Elders_. His mom would freak if she found out he'd left the house in the middle of the night, but he orbed to the Bridge anyway, still in his night clothes. They would just jingle him until his head split open and his brain oozed out if he ignored them. The Elder Sandra was there waiting for him, and she greeted him warmly, for an Elder at least, upon his arrival. "Blessed be Christopher," she said with a smile.

Grouchy at being woken and also because the night-chilled metal of the bridge was freezing his bare feet, Chris snapped "What do you guys want? Can't it wait until morning?"

The Elder gave him a serious look and replied "No, I'm afraid not. You have a new charge, a witch about your age, and we've learned that demons are planning to attack him at midnight. We aren't sure why, but the demons seem every bit as eager to get to him as they were Wyatt, so you see why he needs more protection than an ordinary whitelighter can offer."

With a reluctant sigh, Chris agreed "Fine, that they want him is a good enough reason to protect him. What's his power?"

Sandra shook her head, saying "We don't know".

Suspecting that there was another reason why this guy was being assigned a witchlighter, Chris asked "Does he even know he's a witch?"

Smiling at Chris's apprehension at the thought of having to be a teacher, Sandra laughed, _actually laughed_, "Don't worry Christopher, he knows all about witches and whitelighters. In fact-" She stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widening in surprise. "The attack has come early!" she shouted, " He needs you now!" There was a distinct note of panic in her voice. "Go!" she said, waving a hand, and Chris felt himself being orbed. "Good luck," she whispered as his orbs ascended into the night sky , speeding toward a young witch who was probably already desperately struggling for his life. Equally worried about both boys, she herself didn't think the Halliwell lad was old enough for a charge, she left the Earth to rejoin her fellow Elders, her problems following her heaven bound orb trail.

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With a thud Chris solidified just outside a white two story house, and judging from all the surrounding forest, they were miles from a city. A bright flash in his peripheral vision drew his attention. He turned just in time to see a darklighter erupting in the familiar flames of a vanquish. A startled looking teen looked toward him. Apparently, he hadn't seen Chris orb in, because he raised a hand and sent a jet of flame blazing towards Chris. Orbing out of they way just in time, Chris reappeared next to his new charge. The guy blinked in confusion, and Chris shook his still outstretched hand, saying, "Hi, names Chris, mind not doing that again?"

"You orbed here in your pajamas?" asked the boy, realizing he must be speaking to his new whitelighter.

"Yeah, well you picked a bad time to be in mortal danger."

He grinned apologetically. "My name's Ryan, sorry about trying to roast you."

Before Chris could reply, a darklighter appeared in a flurry of black orbs. He raised his crossbow and fired a quick shot before Ryan had time to react. Chris flicked his wrist at the arrow, and it reversed directions and went spinning sideways out of the air, surprising both Ryan and the darklighter. The demon didn't waste any time, and immediately fired another arrow, which Chris also sent spiraling off harmlessly into the night. This time Ryan was ready, he sent a stream of fire straight at the darklighter. His screams echoed through the night as he was destroyed.

"Umm..." Ryan began to ask, but Chris cut him off, saying "We need to get you somewhere safe first, in case any more show up, then you can ask questions." Stepping closer to Ryan, Chris said "What were you doing out here anyway?"

"Well, Sandra told me that demons would probably come after me tonight, so I figured I'd better get out here where they couldn't hurt anybody".

Raising an eyebrow at his apparent first name basis with an Elder, Chris placed a hand on his shoulder and they orbed away.

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Piper Halliwell sat her coffee mug down on the table next to the Book, and began flipping through the ancient pages. Normally, she wouldn't be in the attic in the middle of the night, but for some reason she couldn't sleep. Never one to waste time, she'd decided to search the Book again for the demons that had come after Wyatt last week. Suddenly, she saw blue lights dancing across the pages. The sound of orbing told her that the lights weren't just from lack of sleep. It also told her that someone was probably about to be busted for getting a late night peek at the Book of Shadows. She looked up, startled, and found Chris standing in the attic with a teenager she'd never seen before , wearing all black no less.

Thinking that Chris must've been forced to orb the demon to the Book, Piper shouted,

"Duck Chris! I'll blow him up!"

Chris quickly held up his hands placatingly, saying "No mom! He's my charge!"

Ryan wasn't getting this any more than Piper was.

"Wait," he said, "How do you have a mom, aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Eyes widening, Piper shouted "What! Dead ? Okay, I'm definitely blowing you up, move Chris"

Getting frustrated, Chris stepped in front of Ryan, blocking him from Piper. Just in case. "Mom you can't blow him up! I told you he was my charge! Jeez."

"Your too young to have a charge!" Piper retorted.

Sighing, Chris waved a hand at a chair sitting in a corner, making it slide forward and halt next to Ryan. "Please, Ryan, have a seat," he said. Looking very confused, and wary of Piper, Ryan complied.

Walking over to his mother, the young witchlighter said "Mom please, he just got attacked by a bunch of darklighters and your probably scaring him more than they did".

Piper noticed how this kid, Ryan, Chris has called him, was sitting. A humble shoulders-slumped posture, and his eyes were deliberately avoiding her own. He noticed her watching him, and stared at the floor, self consciously brushing a lock of hair from his blue eyes. She knew this was probably scary for him.

Feeling guilty, she sighed, saying, "Chris is right, I'm sorry Ryan. It's just you can never be too careful in this house."

He looked up shyly and she could tell from his eyes that he was indeed nervous. She also felt like he was hiding something, and it made her uneasy. He had that same closed look that the future iteration of her son had so perfectly mastered. He was too young to have that look. He couldn't be any older than Chris, they were the around the same height and build. They even had somewhat similar hair, both being dark brown and relatively short. Except Ryan's was long enough in the front for him to hide behind it.

"It's ok." he mumbled, before returning his gaze to the floor.

_What happened to him?_ Chris wondered. _He didn't even blink at a darklighter's arrow but Mom is intimidating him? _"Okay," Chris said, wanting to break the awkward silence. "Now that we're safe, ask away".

Obviously glad to shift the attention away from himself, Ryan asked "Okay, how do you have a family... and whatever it was that you did to those arrows?"

"Well," Chris began to answer, sitting down in the chair next to his mother, "I'm not a real whitelighter. My dad is-was one, but Mom here is a witch. So I'm half witch, which is why I'm telekinetic." Chris vaguely wondered Ryan was trying to cover up his look of surprise. It's not like half-breeds like him were common. Well, thanks to the Halliwells they were starting to be, but still.

Just then a number of demons shimmered into the room, each readying a fireball to throw.

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_So what do you think? Should I continue? I know it's short but it's sort of a trial run. There's actually about three chapters worth of stuff written but it's hard enough for me to get ahold of a computer so I'm not typing unless I know someone will actually read it! Please review!_

Sorrow


	2. Hellfire and the Open Book Test

_Thanks for the reviews guys! Here's the next chapter, hope you like it!_

_History Buff 1990: Saw where you found the colorquiz. Creepy eh?_

**Hellfire and the Open Book Test**

**Previously**

"Well," Chris began to answer, sitting down in the chair next to his mother, "I'm not a real whitelighter. My dad is-was one, but Mom here is a witch. So I'm half witch, which is why I'm telekinetic." Chris vaguely wondered Ryan was trying to cover up his look of surprise. It's not like half-breeds like him were common. Well, thanks to the Halliwells they were starting to be, but still.

Just then a number of demons shimmered into the room, each readying a fireball to throw.

* * *

Shoving Ryan to the floor as he stood, Chris sent both of their chairs flying at the nearest demon with a wave of his hand. Then he quickly joined his bewildered new charge on the floor as fireballs from the other two demons soared overhead, obliterating the grandfather clock in the corner.

So he had three to deal with. And judging from the explosions behind him, his mother was being attacked as well. _No problem,_ Chris thought, _I can handle this._ He got back on his feet, and for a couple of minutes he and his would-be assassins simply stood there chucking fireballs back and forth at each other, with Chris telekinetically returning everything sent his way.

Then Wyatt orbed right into the middle of it all, sleepily asking "Whass all the noise about?".

Seeing the look of horror on his brother's face, Wyatt turned around just in time to see two fireballs hurtling toward his face. With a yelp of surprise he threw up his barrier just in time to deflect the blasts, one of which set the couch on fire. Dropping the shield, Wyatt summoned Excalibur into his hand and immediately pitched it through the chest of the closest demon. The demon vanished in a pillar of fire, and the Twice-Blessed orbed his sword back to him before it ever hit the ground.

"Very dramatic" Chris commented dryly. "I thought so," came the reply from his brother.

Ryan was on his feet by now, and he took advantage of the demons' surprise at seeing their comrade go up in flames. Raising both hands, palms facing up and out, he unleashed twin torrents of fire that simultaneously seared both demons out of existence.

"Whoa there's another one!" Wyatt shouted, finally noticing Ryann "Feelin a little treacherous towards your buddies eh?" With that he raised Excalibur at a startled Ryan, who barely jumped back in time to miss meeting the blades sharp edge.

"Wy! What is up with you guys? Stop trying to kill my charge!" Chris shouted exasperatedly.

"Your charge...wait why do you get a charge! I'm older!" Wyatt fumed.

"Was that Hellfire?" Piper said, striding over to them, apparently having vanquished all of her assailants.

"What? What's going on ?" Wyatt asked, confused.

"I asked if that was that hellfire!?" Piper demanded.

"Mom what are you talking about?" Chris asked nervously. The tone of her voice had him worried.

"Ryan, if you value your life you'll answer me". Piper said coldly.

Chris could tell from the look on Ryan's face, his now ashen face, that he didn't know what she was talking about. "Mom," he said, trying to calm her down, "That's just his power".

"No it's a demonic power. An upper-level one." she said, shocking all three boys.

"B-but I've always had this power," Ryan stammered, "I didn't steal it or anything".

"Of course you didn't," Piper replied icily, "You've probably had it ever since your satanic little birth. And don't try to lie, I know what I'm talking about, I saw Phoebe use it years ago, while she was evil."

"Wait, Aunt Phoebe was evil?" Wyatt asked, still being ignored.

"Umm, I should probably get him back now, in case more demons-" Chris began, before being cut off by his mother. "Oh no you don't, he's not going anywhere till he proves he's not evil".

"Like the Elders would give me a demonic charge mom" Chris said, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice.

"He's not leaving until I'm sure," she said stubbornly, "Make him touch the Book".

Sighing, Chris turned to Ryan. "Well, go on, touch it", he said, gesturing towards the open Book of Shadows, which was laying on the table next to a shattered coffee mug. Somehow not a drop had managed to stain the family heirloom.

With a puzzled look, Ryan went over and placed a hand on one of the pages.

"See? Not evil." Chris grouched as he strode over to his charge. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Chris said "Goodnight guys" and then orbed out.

* * *

"What was that about?" Ryan asked tentatively as they walked through the woods toward his house.

Breaking from his thoughts, Chris looked up. "Huh?" he asked, "What was what about?"

"Y-you know, the Book thing." Ryan replied, looking at the ground as he walked.

"Oh that," Chris said casually, "It won't let evil touch it". For some reason that made Ryan turn very pale. "Sorry, 'bout my mom," he continued, "She's just paranoid sometimes, demons do that to you after a while. I'm sure she would never try to vanquish you...at least I don't think so." Ryan remained silent, letting Chris drift away in his thoughts once more as they trudged along.

It wasn't long before they reached the house. "One more thing," Ryan said. "How did those demons find me? That's not even the same kind that's been after me."

"Actually," Chris replied, they were probably after Mom or Wyatt, with them being Charmed and Twice-Blessed and all."

Ryans's eyes widened "Your mom's a Charmed One?" he said with awe, "Then that means.."

"Yeah yeah Twice-Blessed Wyatt's my brother. Don't remind me" Chris said with a chuckle.

"Er, thats my room" Ryan said pointing at a second floor window, "Could you-"

"Certainly," Chris said, orbing them into a dark bedroom.

"Well, goodnight." Chris said, "I'll tell you whatever you want to know tomorrow. Don't hesitate to call me if you get attacked again. Though you probably don't need me, that's a pretty cool power you've got." And with that the young Halliwell orbed out, briefly illuminating a surprisingly barren room with blue and white lights.

Ryan let out a sigh of relief and flopped down on the bed. He'd been terrified that the Book would reject him. What was Sandra thinking, assigning him a Halliwell? He'd be vanquished in a heartbeat if they found out about him. They wouldn't waste time waiting for explanations. He didn't deserve a whitelighter anyway.

Back at the manor, Piper had just extinguished the fire on the sofa with a spell, not really caring about personal gain at the moment. Closing the Book, she returned it to the podium where it normally rested.

Looking over at Wyatt, she said "Put that away and go to bed King Arthur" before leaving, affectionately ruffling Wyatt's hair, much to his annoyance, on her way out.

Now alone in the attic, Wyatt let Excalibur vanish, fuming over being completely ignored. Finally, went to his room, orbing just to spite his mother.

Chris collapsed onto his bed as soon as he solidified back at the Manor. _I swear, _he thought tiredly, _this night's been longer than my day was!_ He couldn't believe he'd gotten his first charge before Wyatt had. He couldn't even heal! He would bother Sandra about it eventually, but in the meantime he would have to make sure he didn't tease Wyatt about it too much. His big brother never flaunted the fact that he had more powers, though it still bothered him a little. He smiled. It was going to be a challenge not to rub it in. Wyatt wouldn't really care though. He was goofy and easygoing, a complete opposite to Chris.

Then his thoughts landed on his new charge, and his smile faded to be replaced by a thoughtful frown.

He wanted to like Ryan. It would be nice to be friends. But Chris was clever enough to know when something didn't quite add up. Ryan's reaction to him saying he was a witchlighter, and to his explanation of the Book test. And then there was that power of his. Even if the Book didn't think he was evil, he was definitely hiding something. Chris should know. It was in his nature to hide his feelings. It always had been for some reason. Eventually his thoughts wandered and he began to slowly drift toward some much needed sleep.

* * *

_A/N: I know that they called it "fire throwing" or something when Phoebe developed the demonic power, but I could'nt remember exactly and hellfire sounds so much cooler! And demonic._

_Hope you enjoyed this! I'll try to update soon!_


	3. As Good as Dead

_I'm really sorry about the delay, but things have been crazy lately. Dad's pretty sick from the chemo, and he's been hospitalized with a bloodclot in his neck. Writing is a great way for me to de-stress, it's just finding the time to type that I can't do. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming, they are my motivation!_

_sam jay: Eh, interesting theory, but Ryan's his own being, he's just supposed to have a lot of things in common with Chris, it's a form of irony, which will make sense later. Don't rule AUs though 'cuz they may come into play later evil grin _

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Charmed, then this wouldn't be fanfic would it? No, it would be the script for season 30 or something. Lol.

**Warning:** Sorry I forgot to mention this before, but this is rated T for language and violence. I don't think it'll ever get worse than the actual show though, so use your discretion.

**As Good as Dead**

"I'll see you later honey," Leo said, giving Piper a quick kiss after putting his dishes away. "Oh," he added, "Could you get Wyatt to come see me after breakfast, I need his help." As soon as he finished, he orbed away to his office.

For a few minutes, Piper sat lost in thought, neglecting her food.

"Good morning Mother." Wyatt said cooly as he entered the kitchen and began digging around in the cabinet for his favorite cereal.

"Hi, sweetie." Piper said distractedly.

"Oh my," Wyatt snorted, "I think she actually heard me!"

"Oh stop it!" Piper snapped, "Your acting like your brother!You know I had other things to worry about last night!"

"Speaking of which," he countered, "I wanna know exactly what's going on."

His mother shook her head, saying "Well I'd love to tell you, but your brother is the only one who knows and we're not waking him up. I doubt he got very much sleep last night".

"What's that Mom? I can't hear you." Wyatt shouted with an evil grin, before disappearing in a swirl of very mischievous orbs.

"Wyatt Matthew Halliwell!" the oldest Charmed One shouted at the ceiling, "You better not have orbed where I think you did!"

Shouts from upstairs and a nasty thud confirmed her suspicions. A moment later, Wyatt came flying, literally, down the stairs.

"Ow!" he said crashing into the floor at the foot of the stairs. "Mom!" he whined, "Chris just chucked me down the stairs! Aren't you even the least bit concerned?"

"Not if your still able to whine," Piper wryly, before taking a sip of coffee, "I told you we were letting him sleep".

"Jerk." Chris muttered, descending the stairs and stepping over his brother on his way to the kitchen.

"Good morning Chris," Piper said with obvious tension in her voice, "Get any sleep?"

"Not if I can help it," Wyatt said, as he and his brother sat down at the table, one returning to a previously abandoned bowl, the other having only a glass of orange juice.

With an annoyed upward flick of Chris' hand, Wyatt's cereal geysered into his face.

"Chris!" Piper scolded, "Just ignore him. I do it all the time."

"Oh thanks mom," Wyatt said, milk dripping from his chin.

"And there's less of a mess to clean up," she said, scowling at the mess Wyatt's dripping was making on the table.

"I'm sorry, I can't ignore him, it's just too funny," Chris snickered, earning a glare from his older brother. Much of the look's intimidating quality was lost due to the Fruit Loops stuck to Wyatt's face.

"Anyways," Piper said, "As soon as you finish eating your father wants to see you at Magic School Wyatt. And Chris, you really should go back to bed, I know you couldn't have gotten enough sleep last night."

"Mom, I'm fine. Besides I need to-" _Chris​?_ Said a quiet voice in his head. "-Get my head checked out 'cause I'm hearing things," he finished a moment later.

_Chris!_ The voice sounded panicked now. _Help!_ Chris could feel the terror, and he stood up saying, "I have to go." Focusing on his charge, Chris orbed out of his kitchen and into a cave, leaving his mother and brother staring blankly.

"Umm, ok, his charge must've called him." Wyatt said, wiping his face with a towel.

"What if it's a trap? Come on, after him!" Piper exclaimed, slapping Wyatt's arm and then grabbing it.

Wrestling free from her grip, He stepped aside and said "Mom, chill. If he needed any help he'd call me. Now what did Dad want?"

Still looking anxious, Piper replied "I don't know. Go see. But if you hear so much as a whisper from your brother you orb to him that instant or you'll finally be a real whitelighter."

"Love you too Mom," Wyatt quipped, rolling his eyes and orbing out of the room.

Piper bustled about the kitchen, tidying up after the boys, and had almost convinced herself to call Wyatt back and make him find Chris when Paige came running down the stairs.

"Piper!" she said breathlessly, "The same clan that came after Wyatt attacked us again. Phoebe found them in the Book of Shadows, I think we should take care of them before they get one of us."

"Yeah yeah, I'm getting tired of them too. Fine, let's go." with that the sisters walked up the stairs to get Phoebe. The Power of Three was starting to get collectively pissed with a very unlucky demonic clan.

* * *

Darkness surrounded him, he couldn't see a thing. Where on Earth were they? "Ryan?" he whispered into the endless shadow, "Ryan are you here?" Maybe his orbing had been off, he hadn't really had time to build a witch-whitelighter bond. He felt air rush by him, followed by a metallic clanging behind him.

Kneeling down, he felt hard earth beneath him. He tried to improvise a spell.

"Give me the sight

to see without light,

reveal the night,

remove the shadow's blight!"

Rocky walls appeared around him. He could see a dim figure standing up head of him. But it was hazy. His new sight wasn't perfect. The figure raised something, pointing it at Chris. A crossbow. Chris rolled to the floor just as another arrow flew into the wall behind him, making another clang. Not possessing night vision, the darklighter was aiming for the sound of Chris's voice.

Careful to move quietly, Chris crawled forward, looking for his charge. He found him huddled against a side wall only a few feet away from the darklighter, who stood unmoving. Listening.

Waving his arm sharply, Chris sent the two fired arrows flying back to their owner,who collapsed to his knees, gasping in pain, before briefly illuminating the room in a column of flames.

"Hey," Chris said, tapping Ryan on the back, "You okay?"

Ryan didn't stir to answer him. He felt his hand brush against the shaft of an arrow.

Feeling sick, he grabbed Ryan and orbed home.

* * *

"Wyatt!" Chris practically screamed, as he orbed into the attic. "Wyatt! Help!" He used a mixture of telekinesis and physical strength to lift his unconscious charge onto the battered couch, laying him on his stomach since the arrow was protruding from his back.

When no brother materialized, he started screaming for his dad. Then his Aunt Paige. When they didn't come, he yelled for his mother, for anyone, his voice getting shakier with each name. He wanted to go search the house, surely they couldn't all be gone, but was too scared to leave Ryan alone.

Then he noticed that he couldn't sense any of them. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't heal. His family was missing. Ryan hadn't even been Chris' charge for a day and he was already as good as dead.

* * *

_Yes, I know it's evil, but it seemed like a good stopping point. If all goes well, I might get to add another chapter today though crosses fingers _

_Oh, and Ryan doesn't have whitelighter blood, he's just dying from injury. You try getting shot in the back with a crossbow and tell me how it works out for you._


	4. Still Breathing

_Hmm, looks like I got this up after all. Anyway, hope you enjoy, please review!_

**Diclaimer: I don't own Charmed. If I did you wouldn't be reading this big fat DISCLAIMER.**

**Still Breathing**

_Previously_

He didn't know what to do. He couldn't heal. His family was missing. Ryan hadn't even been Chris' charge for a day and he was already as good as dead.

* * *

At least he was still breathing.

Chris stood up from his kneeling position next to the couch, and started pacing the room, desperately trying to figure out what to do. His mother was right. He was too young for a charge. What had the Elders been thinking? Wait...Elders. Sandra! Remembering Ryan's apparent familiarity with her, Chris called for her. After a moment filled with increasingly frantic shouts, the Elder orbed in.

"Christopher, what's the matter with you, you can't just summon an-" she stopped when she saw the fear in his green eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked, dread filling her voice.

Unable to speak, Chris just waved half-heartedly towards the couch.

Gasping, Sandra hurried over to Ryan's side, and quickly knelt down. Strangely managing to seem reluctant and hurried at the same time, she pulled the arrow out and held her hands over him.

When the golden light bathing him faded, Ryan shuddered and rolled over on his side, still unconscious. "He'll be ok," She said, "He just needs rest." When the young witchlighter failed to look relieved, she asked "What else has happened?" Then it dawned on her. "Wait, where is your family? Why didn't one of them heal him?"

"I-I don't know!" Chris stammered, finally breaking down now that there was an adult present to pick up the slack.

"They're all missing, I can't sense any of them." he said, shaking with what Sandra realized must be sobs, or at least as close as this kid ever came to them. She reached out a hand to console the boy, when she was struck by what appeared to be a cloud of dark orbs. She sailed across the attic, crashing into the wall next to the door.

Another stream shot toward Chris, and with a yelp, he tried to orb out of the way. But the two orbs mingled and slammed into the wall, where he reformed slumped on the floor next to Sandra.

A girl, dressed in a black leather tank top and matching pants was standing across the room, an evil smile upon her beautiful face. She had long, straight blond hair, and deep blue eyes. Eyes that held no warmth. "Time to finally be rid of you, she said cruelly, turning to face the unconscious Ryan. She held up her hand, and it was surrounded by a cloud of sinisterly swirling dark orbs.

All of the tension of Chris reached a breaking point. Raging tides of emotion became torrents of power. He felt like his whole body was on fire. He raised a hand, screaming "No!" and a bolt of lighting lept from his hand. The attack struck the strange darklighter, knocking her backwards and away from the defenseless witch. She quickly scrambled to her knees, but orbed out without getting back on her feet, hatred marring her lovely features.

With a moan, Chris' eyes fell shut, and he collapsed against the wall, leaving a very disoriented and confused Elder pondering what to do next.

Holding a hand over Chris, Sandra checked his health, and let out a sigh of relief. He was fine, other than the complete energy drain that little bolt of lightning had caused. Perturbed by his developing an Elder power, Sandra orbed both boys, and herself, Up There, which, under ordinary circumstances, would be enough to get even her wings clipped. But so far, there had been nothing ordinary about this day.

* * *

Piper winced as the heat of a fireball washed over her when it flew past her head, before exploding on the craggy wall behind her. That was close. A simple flick of the wrists was enough to dispatch her remaining foes. She didn't have to wait long before her sisters orbed in from the cavern's other room.

"Well," said Paige as she solidified, "That pretty much takes care of that faction."

"I just hope it was the right one," Phoebe said seriously.

"Oh God!" Piper said in mock horror, " What if I just blew up a cave full of innocent demons!?"

"Piper," Phoebe said exasperatedly, "You know that's not what I meant. I meant I hope they were the ones after Wyatt."

"Considering the entire underworld is pretty much after-"

"Shut up Paige." Phoebe said flatly.

Frowning, she said, "I don't know what it is. I just have a really bad feeling."

"Well then let's get the hell out of...hell!" Piper said, linking her arm with her youngest sister's.

Phoebe joined the Charmed chain and they vanished in a rising formation of orbs, an ominous feeling hanging over them.

* * *

"Fine I'll do it. I'll cover the class," Wyatt sighed as he rose from the leather chair in front of his father's desk. "But I swear if that girl with the Voice says one word to me-"

"She won't Wyatt," Leo said with amusement, "Besides, she says she didn't mean to use it on you."

"Dad, she had me saying I was going to marry her." Wyatt said flatly.

"Just a harmless crush," Leo snickered.

"I'm pretty sure brainwashing doesn't qualify as harmless!" Wyatt snapped, grumbling as he started for the door. It wouldn't open.

"What the -" He stopped at an admonitory glare from his father, "-heck?" he finished lamely.

"It's the door, it won't open."

"Gee, we're in a school full of magical teenagers, what a shock that the principal has managed to get locked in his own office. Wyatt, what is it?"

"I- I think I heard Chris calling me, but it's so faint."

"Well, orb out and see what he wants. I'll find someone else to cover the class." When Wyatt just stood there, Leo frowned and said "I said you could go son."

"I can't orb," Wyatt said simply.

Leo tried to orb. Nothing happened. "I can't either," he said quietly.

"Still think it's a prank dad?"

* * *

As soon as they appeared in the attic, Phoebe shuddered. "Something bad just happened here. I can feel it."

A quick look around the room brought a cry of surprise from Paige. "Look!" she exclaimed, "The couch! Is that...blood?"

It was blood all right. That made Piper's own blood run cold. "Oh no," she said as she pointed at the floor in front of the sofa. A crimson stained arrow lay there.

* * *

_Yay I finished two in one afternoon! Yeah yeah I know that's nothing impressive, especially since they're so short. But you know something about beggars being chosers...as if anyone would actually beg for this...Hmm I need to stop rambling._


	5. Angry Elders and Panicky Piper

_As always, thank you for the reviews! It's good to know some of you actually like this. And, good news! Dad's blood clot wasn't as serious as they originally thought, he's on blood thinner for now but he gets to come home! Which means I'll be able to write again_

_sam jay: Eh, techinically, it wasn't this Chris who saved Wyatt, this one is more or less getting new powers because he's gonna need them. The Elders didn't plan this either, he's got some of their powers because of Leo, but he doesn't have the rank of "Elder"._

_MidnightLightning36: You flatter me! blushes Anyway, I was considering doing either a prequel or a sequel about the boys' exploits at Magic School when I finish this one. If I do, Wyatt's wannabe wife will almost certainly play a part!_

_sailor cyanide: Don't worry, I won't kill him off...yet. He's too important to the story for now._

_I apologize for this Chrisless chapter, but he's a bit out of it at the moment. Oh and I kinda lied about the OC thing...there's probably gonna be about three major ones. Just rest assured that I'll never drown you in Charmed Ones offspring...those fics get confusing!_

**Diclaimer:**I own very few things. Charmed is not one of them.

* * *

**Angry Elders and Panicky Piper**

As soon as Sandra arrived in the heavens she was assaulted by a frenzied pack of Elders.

"What it the meaning of this?" shouted one Elder, "Explain yourself!" cried another.

"People please! Calm down!" rang out a clear voice. The crowd parted to reveal one of the youngest Elders ever. He must have died in his teens. He had short, sandy colored hair, and there was a calm intelligence in his hazel eyes that many of his more senior comrades had yet to develop.

"I'm sure she has a very good reason for bringing two unconscious mortal youths to the Higher Realms. Please explain." he said, spreading his hands in an encouraging gesture.

Taking a breath, Sandra tried to force a note of calm into her voice. "This," she waved her hand toward Chris, " Is the son of a Charmed One. And he," a wave toward Ryan, "Is his new charge". Noticing that they were still glaring at her, she continued. "It seems that the Halliwells are missing, and I think we all know why I couldn't have left these two alone and defenseless."

There was an uncomfortably long pause before more arguments erupted among the Elders.

Walking over to Sandra, the young Elder said "Well we can't just leave them lolling about on the floor now can we?" He waved a hand, dispelling the two witches in a swirl of orbs. "They can stay in my chambers for now." Leaning close to Sandra, he whispered in a barely audible voice, " There are enough wards there to keep an Avatar at bay, so they should be safe from some of our...less understanding colleagues."

"Thank you Seth," Sandra replied, smiling gratefully.

"Now, about the missing Charmed coven, I will try to contact Leo or Paige, if you will try to find the rest of them. That way I can stay here and make sure the young witches are left alone."

Sandra chuckled, saying "I wouldn't worry about that too much, the others didn't even notice you orb them out, they're still fighting."

"Hmm," Seth mused, "What about the other boy, where is his family?"

"I'm afraid he doesn't have any." Sandra said, visibly saddened, "He's all alone. He needs someone to stay with."

Nodding solemny, Seth said, "Yes. He can stay Up Here as long as he wants, but I doubt the Halliwells would reject him".

"They wouldn't," Sandra agreed. "But I don't think he would tell them about his situation, let alone ask for help. He's only just met Christopher, and he's much too shy to reveal so much to a stranger".

"Well, we can ponder this later, after the most powerful force of good magic in the world is no longer missing. Good luck." And with that he orbed out.

Shaking her head at the perpetually bickering mass of Elders, Sandra orbed to the Golden Gate Bridge to begin her search. The other Elders didn't even notice that two of their number had departed.

* * *

"Oh my God!" Piper panicked, pacing nervously back and forth. "Why won't they answer me? And whose blood is that? LEO! WYATT! CHRIS!" Paige and Phoebe exchanged a concerned look. 

"Calm down Piper, your yelling so loud that I can hear that in _my_ head. I'll go talk to the Elders, and Phoebe can scry with the arrow. Also, you might wanna try the 'To Call a Lost Witch' spell." Looking worriedly at her sister one last time, Paige orbed to the Bridge.

* * *

The chiming sounds of orbing made their way to Sandra's ears. She opened her eyes and stood from her cross-legged meditation position. "Paige!" She exclaimed when the youngest Charmed One materialized right in front of her. "I was just trying to sense you". 

"Umm ok," Paige said, "Look, we've got a huge-"

"The boys are safe, I took them Up There."

"Chris and Wyatt?"

"No, Chris and Ryan".

"Who?"

"His charge."

"Charge!?"

"Look Paige, I don't have time to explain it all to you right now. If Wyatt isn't with you then..."

* * *

"Look Wyatt, that's the fifth energy ball, and the door isn't even scorched. Just give up all ready," Leo sighed. 

"Come now Leo, aren't you supposed to be an optimist?" said a cold voice mockingly from a corner of the room.

Wyatt and Leo turned to see who had spoken, when a large energy ball collided with Leo, sending him flying into a bookshelf against the side wall.

"Dad!" Wyatt yelled, turning toward his fallen father. He managed to take a step before falling to the floor unconscious. Standing over him was a sinister looking man, holding an ancient looking sword with a bloody hilt. The man had lanky, dirty blond hair, and his blue eyes harbored no trace of remorse for the violence he had just committed.

"Hmm," he chuckled to himself darkly, "And they always said Chris was the one prone to self-destructive behavior." Laughing to himself, the man and his two victims disappeared in a haze of black orbs.

* * *

"Piper!" Paige shouted as she reformed in the Manor's living room. "She's at Magic School!" Phoebe called from upstairs, followed by "She potioned herself there, I'm still scrying, and the spell didn't work." 

Hands on her hips, she orbed out, forgetting (In her haste to find Piper) to tell Phoebe not to worry about Chris.

After arriving at Magic School, Paige quickly found Piper outside the door to Leo's office. Trying to blow it up. And not having much luck.

"Uh Piper, it has a doorknob..."

"It's out of order".

"Well then I'll orb us," She took Piper's hand and they melted into a flow of blue orbs. The orbs rebounded off of the door and sprinkled down onto the floor, where they changed into two dazed Charmed Ones, tangled in each other's limbs.

Getting to her feet, Piper practically growled,

"Forces of magic, heed the words I say

I need to know that my family is okay

Clear my path, clear my way

This is what I pray."

There was a hissing sound and a crackle of energy around the door. For a moment nothing happened, then the door swung open. Piper strode into the room, Paige on her heels saying "I'm not sure if that was-" Piper silenced her with a glare. "It worked. That's all that matters." The room looked intact, the only things amiss were the demolished book case, which had a couple of collapsed shelves that had spilled books all over the floor, and a few drops of what appeared to be blood on the gray stone floor.

"Well at least Chris is safe," Paige said brightly.

* * *

_Dun dun dun!!!!!!!!!! Will the Charmed Ones ever show up _before_the blood is spilled? What will become of Chris and Ryan? Why does Sandra know so much about Ryan? Who abducted Leo and Wyatt? Okay, that last one is fiarly easy to deduce...__So many questions!_

* * *


	6. Witches in Heaven and Angels in Hell

_Ta da! The sixth chapter! I don't really like it, but maybe you will? I'm caught up to the paper version now, so I'll have to start wrting faster...for some reason I can't just sit down and type, I have to write it first... Of course, I do a lot of this at school. In classes that bore me. Lol._

_charmedgrl4ever: I'm glad your enjoying this, but as for Bianca...meh, never liked her. So it's unlikely that she'll show up. Besides, Halliwells rarely have enough free time for love lives...it took the sisters years to figure that out, and I plan on keeping young Christopher busy._

_MidnightLightning36: Yeah, I'm not that great at rhymes either _: )

_Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed!_

**Disclaimer: I have about $20 to my name at any given moment. You don't really think I own Charmed do you?**

**Warning:** Bad things happen in this chapter. Well, the actual violence has already occurred, but you know what I mean. Nothing too bad though. Bet that makes 'ya read fast!

* * *

**Witches in Heaven and Angels in Hell**

Ryan tried to blink the blurriness out of his vision as he sat up. Everything came into focus to reveal whiteness everywhere. White walls, white floor, white furniture, and a white bed (which he was sitting on). The only color came from a gilded door. He moved to the edge of the bed and looked around. Chris was laying next to him, unconscious but apparently unharmed. He had no idea what had happened.

Last he remembered, he'd been snatched away to the underworld by a darklighter. He'd tried a spell to hide himself as soon as he realized where he was, but it had backfired, blacking everything out. And he'd still managed to get shot. He remembered the pain in his back, barely managing to call for Chris one last time before passing out. But he was fine now. His whitelighter must have saved him. At the thought of the word _whitelighter_ his sluggish brain finally woke up. He had been healed. He was surrounded in pure, soft whiteness.

His first reaction was to panic. If the Elders found out he was up here, they would kill him. And probably clip Chris' wings. But who had healed him? _Never mind that,_ he thought, _Focus_. He had made up his mind. He would come up with a spell to send Chris home before they were found. No reason Chris should be punished for Ryan's stupidity. He was so set on making the spell he didn't stop to think that they had to be in an Elder's rooms, and that Chris must've got someone to heal him. He had just composed the first lines in his head when the golden door opened. He tensed and turned toward the door, his throwing arm twitching instinctively. A kid, about his age, walked in. Wearing Elder robes. "Oh good your awake," he smiled, making Ryan flinch. "Relax," the stranger said, "You are safe here. You're lucky Sandra healed you, from what I gather it was a mortal wound."

"S-Sandra?" Ryan said, dumbfounded and wary of this stranger.

"Yes, Chris called her after he found you."

"Exactly how do you know all of this Seth?" Sandra asked as she walked though the open door, halting beside him.

"Ah you're back! Wonderful!" he grinned.

"Yes and I couldn't stop earlier to explain all that to you-"

"Forgive me for the confusion," he broke in, "And intrusion...You see, I'm mildly telepathic. It's a little thing Master Ramus taught me long ago. Though I assure you I only looked at recent events."

"Interesting," she mused, "I never knew he had an apprentice, but that can wait for later. How are you Ryan? And how is young Christopher?"

Ryan frowned and hesitated a moment before replying. "Umm... I'm confused. How exactly did I get here?"

"I orbed you here after Chris called me".

"Then what happened to him? Why is he all catatonic?" Ryan replied, a note of guilt obvious in his voice.

"Well, a darklighter with some bizarre power tried to murder you, but he threw lightning at her and scared her off." She said all this almost casually, but Ryan's jaw dropped.

"L-Lightning?"

"Yes, very curious. I wonder why he's developing that power only now," Seth pondered aloud.

"Any way," Sandra continued, rolling her eyes at Seth, "That used all of your whitelighter's power, and he fainted. His family was missing at the time, so I brought you here."

"What strange power was it?" Ryan's gray-blue eyes had taken on a hard quality. There were very few female darklighters. And even less with unusual powers.

"Well, it was kind of like an energy blast, only made of orbs."

The boy paled. Which caused a questioning glance to be exchanged between the two Elders.

"You know her?" Seth queried.

Ryan studied his feet for a moment before looking up long enough to say "Yes. She was responsible for the death of my mother."

Sandra practically gaped at this, and although she swiftly concealed it, it did not go unnoticed by Seth. His mind was already full of questions, and it seemed that these two both knew a lot more than they appeared to. He was tempted to peek into their minds, but he would be loathe to violate a person's inner sanctum unless it was absolutely necessary. Even then he would not be thrilled by it. He hoped Ryan wouldn't force him to.

It took every ounce of willpower Sandra had not to rush over and embrace the dejected looking teen. But he couldn't know about her. Not yet. She had known that Lisa had been murdered by a demon... but not that one. She couldn't fathom what damage seeing the monster again must've wrought upon the poor boy's psyche. Especially since he would have to have witnessed the murder to know the demon responsible for it. No, he was too distraught as it was, without Sandra adding to his stress. He had been alone for far too long. But if she revealed herself to him, he would probably run. She mentally scolded herself for not being able to find him sooner. It had been over two years since she had sensed Lisa die. And Sandra had just now been able to track him down and attempt to offer him some degree of protection, even if she was forced to do so in anonymity.

Yet not even a legendary Halliwell had been enough to keep him safe. Granted the Twice Blessed would have proved a more powerful guardian (And most other Elders would have picked him), but his open personality would have proved too brash. Wyatt Halliwell's overpowering extroversion would have Ryan clammed up in his shell in no time.

She had been so lost in thought that she just now realized that Seth was questioning a very reluctant looking Ryan. And none of them had noticed that Chris was stirring.

* * *

Pain. That was all that Leo Wyatt could feel. His back felt like it was on fire. He didn't know what they had done to it. He was blind, that had been their first atrocity, to burn his eyes beyond functionality by pouring some vile potion in them. He was badly beaten, and was pretty sure some ribs were broken. But he didn't care. He just wanted to know that his son was okay. His real son. Not the one that had let the demons beat him to a pulp. But he was powerless to do anything. He could barely move, and he knew he couldn't stand. He felt dirt beneath him, so he assumed that he was still in the Underworld. He tried to sense for Wyatt, but the pain was keeping him from thinking clearly. The agony was so great, he was sure that if he could see his vision would be swimming. Had his own son really done this to him? Had Chris traveled back in time only to die in vain? They had saved Wyatt, how could he possibly still turn evil? The thought that his abductor was indeed (or would be) Wyatt gave him some small, albeit slightly irrational, hope. Surely the innocent Wyatt was safe. Any harm done to him would affect future Wyatt too. So he was safe, right? Leo had an uneasy feeling that this was somehow not true. But he was drifting now. He felt himself drifting, but was too weak to stop it. He finally lost consciousness, escaping from the pain. For a while.

* * *


	7. Chris Returns In more ways than one

_Only two reviews! If I had any pride, it would totally be wounded! Then again I suppose I should write material worth reviewing first. Not a lot of action in this chapp, but it does have a surprise ending! Sigh. _

_MidnightLightning36: Yeah, I noticed the disinct lack of likeable Elders as soon as I started writing this story. Sandra is being very un-elderish, and there's a reason for that, but I thought she needed some help Up There. And somehow that lead to Seth. I didn't think the primary overseers of Good would be such jerks, so I had to throw in a few decent ones._

_Thanks to MidnightLightning36 and charmedgrl4ever since they actually REVIEWED! I'd send you a gift basket or something but you'd probably freak out if you knew that I know where you live. Oops...eh, you didn't read any of this!_

_Note:The summary I came up with for this story was VERY diluted. It encompasses most of the story, so I apologize if chapters 1-7 haven't exactly lived up to it. But now that the villian is here, we should be seeing some action in the coming chapters._

**Diclaimer: This bold print is so severe, you know it's the line saying "I DONT OWN ANYTHING!" as soon as the page loads! Of course the allcaps shouting probably helps too...**

* * *

**Chris Returns. In more ways than one.**

"Wha-What's going on? Where am I?" Chris asked dazedly, sitting up. He jumped when he saw the two Elders sitting in front of Ryan, who had turned to look at him.

"Welcome back to the world of the waking," said the male Elder, who looked far too young for his station. Of course, he was probably hundreds of years old.

"Chris," Sandra began, "This is Seth, a trusted and wise friend of mine."

"You flatter me," Seth said, smiling warmly.

"We are in the Heavens, I brought us here after the attack."

Then it all came rushing back to him. The darklighter. His missing family.

"Guess your still alive then?" He said to Ryan. He tried to sound nonchalant, in hopes that they wouldn't see his guilt. He had passed out when his charge was helpless. _Some whitelighter I am ,_ he thought bitterly, _They should have made him Wyatt's charge._ He felt even worse when his jibe made Ryan look away. Even his blunt empathic abilities had registered the impact from that.

"Anyway," Sandra quickly intervened, "Your family wanted you back immediately," Chris perked up at this, "But since they were busy searching for Leo and the Twice Blessed, and you were still...indisposed, I convinced Paige to let you stay here for the time being."

"Okay...Well if it's all the same to you I'll- Wait, they don't know where Dad and Wyatt are? I'm definitely leaving then. I have to help." He stood up, pausing for a moment to stretch his legs. Turning to Ryan he asked, "Need a ride back down?"

Ryan opened his mouth but it was not his voice that answered Chris.

"Actually, he will be staying. We need to question him." The group turned to the doorway to see Odin standing in it.

"How did _you_ get in here?" Seth demanded, all warmth gone from his demeanor.

"The door was open, so I let myself in," Odin replied just as frigidly. Sandra hung her head in shame, and Seth glared at her briefly before turning his gaze back to Odin.

Odin ignored his younger counterpart and rounded on the nervous looking witch still sitting on the bed. "Now er..."

"Ryan," supplied the boy dejectedly.

"Yes, Ryan, come with me, wee need to ask you some things."

The teen rose reluctantly, silently pleading for someone to help. Sandra looked livid, and Seth's eyes had a dangerous glint in them. "We shall go as well," he said, indicating Sandra and himself.

"I will orb him to you when we are through Christopher," Sandra said, and Chris knew he had been dismissed.

"Umm ok, thanks for uh saving me. Later Ryan." He vanished into a swirl of orbs that sank into the floor, leaving three Elders and a petrified witch.

* * *

Chris sighed as he landed on his bed. He didn't really want to deal with all the attention the Charmed Ones would smother him in as soon as they realized he was back, but he would feel guilty if he let them keep worrying just because he was antisocial. Besides, he had meant what he said earlier. He did want to help look for his dad and his brother. He wouldn't be able to rest here anyway. The flood of worry and anxiety pouring down from the attic was too much. And he knew it had to be strong, because normally he had to be right next to someone to get anything off of them. He sucked at being an empath. He didn't really want to deal with other people's emotions anyway. Sighing one last time, he orbed to the attic, guiltily regretting leaving Ryan Up There. But all he could do was hope Sandra would take care of him. And that Seth guy had seemed straightforward enough. He still felt bad though. He really needed to work on his conscience, the stupid thing was starting to get on his nerves.

* * *

"Chris!" All three Charmed Ones shrieked simultaneously has soon as he appeared in the attic. Almost too fast for the human eye to see, they were all three upon him, crushing him in a triple embrace. 

"Okay okay, you had your fun now back off," Piper teased, shooing her sisters away, all the better to squeeze her youngest son.

"Ow. Mom, ribs cracking. Let go please." When she didn't relent, he finally he gave up and just orbed a few feet back, almost causing his mother to fall flat on her face.

"So, any luck finding Dad or Wyatt?"

The sisters suddenly became very serious. "Not yet sweetie," Piper said somberly, "But we're working on it. We'll handle it, don't worry. Are you hungry? Do they even have food Up There? Were they too snooty to share it? Tell me cause I can summon-"

"Mom! One question at a time!" Chris said exasperatedly. "I wasn't Up There that long was I?"

"Oh, for the better part of a day," Paige said, resuming her station at the podium that held the Book.

"Exactly. Now what do you want to eat, hm?"

"Mom, I'll fix it myself ok." With that Chris orbed out before his mother could argue.

"Did he really go to the kitchen?" Piper asked, turning to her youngest sister.

Paige closed her eyes for a moment before opening them and answering, "Yep."

* * *

Chris sighed for what must have been the millionth time today as he sat down at the table. Although this one was a sigh of relief. It was nice to know he was loved, especially since he had to live under Wyatt's shadow, but his Mom really overdid it sometimes. He actually wasn't the slightest bit hungry, he just needed to get away. He needed to be alone for some time to think. Too much had happened lately, and solitude always helped him de-stress. Unfortunately, he knew his mother well enough to know that she would check where he was orbing. So he was stuck here for now. His mother wouldn't let him go to the Underworld to look for Wyatt or his Dad, so he'd just have to wait until they were distracted. Surely it wouldn't be too long before some low-level demon idiotically attempted to assassinate them. They were Charmed after all.

* * *

"Why won't you tell us your last name!?" Snapped Sarah, a very irritable Elder with long blond hair and a narrow face to match her lean figure. She appeared to be in her thirties. Ryan, Odin, Seth and Sandra had moved to the Council Chamber, a large area that resembled the room used by the ancient Roman Senate. Ryan sat on a white bench (seemingly made out of the same material as the columns) in the center of the room. 

"He hasn't told us much of anything!" Odin complained, ignoring the looks Sandra was giving him. She seemed to be certain that if she glared at him hard enough, he would eventually burst into flames.

"Because it's none of your business!" Ryan snapped back. Sandra looked worried whenever she looked at him. _This is all her fault really,_ he thought angrily _If she hadn't assigned me a whitelighter, I could have just died quietly. And if she hadn't given me a Halliwell whitelighter, everyone wouldn't be so sure that I'm involved in some nefarious plot_. Though they had every right to be distrustful. He had been lying through his teeth for most of the 3 hour "interview". So far, he had them convinced that he had never known who his father was and that he had never been in the Underworld (not counting today).

Just then the golden double doors opened and a whitelighter, clad in hooded golden robes, walked in. "Forgive the intrusion Wise Ones," he said nervously, "But an outsider has orbed into the Heavens, claiming to be from the future. He says his name is Christopher Halliwell."

* * *

_Nice ending eh? And by nice I mean annoying. Now that I've kind of gained momentum again (I've written a lot lately), I'm gonna try to make these things longer. _


	8. Radio Silence

_Not much to say here, except thanks for all who've read so far! Oh, and isn't it a little wierd that Ch4 has like 20 more hits than 3? ANYWAY, on with the fanfic...enjoy, this is my longest chapter yet!_

**Disclaimer: I could point out that technically I own Ryan and Seth. But since I don't own the universe they live in (or anything else associated with them), what would be the point? Bottom line: None of it is mine!**

* * *

**Radio Silence**

For some reason there was more evidence of dread than shock on the visages of the assembled Elders. "Send him in," Odin said slowly. The hooded figure nodded and wordlessly departed through the double doors. A few minutes passed by before a tall, somewhat thin man with unruly brown hair strode in. He appeared to be in his twenties.

"He-He's not Chris!" Ryan stammered, gaping at the newcomer.

"I'm afraid he is," Seth replied, not averting his gaze from Chris long enough to look at Ryan.

"I did say I was from the future, you don't really expect me to look the same do you?" the frowned thoughtfully for a moment before curiously asking "Do I know you?"

"If you were really from the future you would," Ryan retorted.

"Yes," Sandra joined in, "I suggest you explain yourself".

"Still just as trusting as ever," Chris muttered, earning himself a collective glare strong enough to induce cancer causing cell mutation from all of the Elders in the room.

"I'm not exactly from the future. Well, not _only_ from the future. Anymore. I'm the Chris that Gideon killed. Only this all happened in a different dimension where Wyatt turned evil anyway. Please tell me that's not the case here." He got a reassuring nod from Sandra, and he hurriedly continued his story when he saw Odin preparing to open that large mouth of his. "The Wyatt from _that_ universe came here. He got mad cause he couldn't completely win in his own world so he jumped to this one."

"Surely you have something to support these ludicrous claims!" Odin barked.

"My being here," Chris said simply.

"Actually, that only raises more questions," Seth said calmly.

"Hmm," Chris mused as he studied Seth. "Never seen you before either. Anyways, after I died, I went to some other plane. I guess since i technically didn't exist anymore. It was a boring place really, I did run into Cole once though."

Even the seemingly perpetually calm Seth was taken aback at this.

"Wyatt cast a spell. It was kind of like the time travel portal, only greenish and he used a pentagram instead of a triquetra. He modified it to take him through time _and_ space." He paused a moment to let all this sink in. Taking a breath, he continued, "I was watching him, and I walked through it after him, not really expecting anything to happen, and next thing I know I'm in another world and I'm alive again."

"That's why he doesn't know us," Seth said to Ryan, "We probably don't exist in his reality."

"You don't actually believe him?" Odin demanded incredulously.

"I do," Seth replied. "He may know how to guard himself against empaths but he's never had to deal with telepathy before."

Chris' eyes widened in shock at what that Elder was saying. "Get out of my head!" he screamed. He tired to channel the intruder's power back at him through empathy, but couldn't find a strong emotion.

So Chris flung out both hands. Angels without wings went flying everywhere. As Elders soared through the air propelled by a wave of telekinetic energy, most had sense enough to orb or levitate themselves down safely. But the one moment of surprise was enough for Chris to get what he needed. He'd managed to shock Seth (and everyone else) with his spontaneous outburst. It was perfect for channeling powers through empathy. Instantly he became aware of someone else, he felt their presence. He knew he was now in Seth's head. He couldn't really work this power so he didn't know how to look around but he knew he could find a way out. He pulled his consciousness away from the stunned Elder while visualizing a series of doors slamming shut, one right after the other. It was working. The presence was getting weaker and weaker. Finally it disappeared all together. Now no matter who was wielding the power, Seth and Chris could not link minds. Unfortunately this also blocked his empathy.

Most of the Elders were still scattered around the room, but a few were gathered in a tight circle around Ryan, who was looking very confused. Seth got to his feet and glared briefly at Chris before turning to the group surrounding Ryan. Sandra, who was already part of the group, looked horrified. "He orbed himself down," Sarah said dully. "No he dark orbed!" Odin yelled. He raised a hand and Sandra moved to stop him but it was too late. A blazing bolt of electrical energy arced from his fingertips and jolted into the bewildered teenager.

Ryan was sent flying through the air, and when he landed he collided with one of the white columns.

His vision was dimming. He could vaguely make out a row of foggy silhouettes advancing on him, shouting. But the buzzing in his ears made it impossible to understand. There was a horrible pain in his chest, and the bolt had burned through his shirt to reveal a patch of scorched black skin in the middle of his chest. His breathing was heavy. Each gulp of air was a struggle. He had to get away. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his room, hoping desperately that this was how Chris got it to work. He felt the same familiar floating sensation that he had felt a minute before, and the shouts disappeared.

He opened his eyes to be greeted by the blandness of his bedroom. He would have sighed in relief, but he couldn't afford to waste the air. He closed his eyes, wincing at the searing pain in his chest. _My insides are definitely fried_ ,he thought dazedly. He opened his eyes to find that the room was spinning. And he was falling. As he drew closer to the floor, he strained to acquire enough air for one word. But his whitelighter didn't hear him. Or didn't care. Either way it didn't really matter. The blackness had him now.

* * *

"That could have gone better," Seth muttered to himself. Odin had stormed out, saying that he was severing Chris' whitelighter bond to Ryan, and most of the other Elders had left the council chamber as well. Seth was standing just outside the large golden doors. The small number that had remained was questioning the time-traveling witchlighter, though only on one condition. Seth was not allowed to be in the same room as Chris. So he was attempting to keep up with things by watching Sandra's mind. But due to the distance between them and his rather patchy knowledge of the psychic arts, he was only catching fractured thoughts. Ramus had always told him he was too impatient to master it.

He did manage to hear Sandra mentally announce that she was leaving. She sent an image of the Golden Gate Bridge flashing into his mind, and then he felt her presence fade from the room. Seth smiled to himself, Sandra had known he would be trying to gather info from her. Then he too departed, orbing to his chambers for some much needed rest (even angels have to sleep!). When he woke up he would continue trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the world lately.

* * *

Chris was still in the kitchen, now actually eating a sandwich. His mother had came down stairs a while ago and threatened to force feed him something if he didn't eat. He tried to tell her he wasn't hungry but it was almost midnight and all he'd had today was a glass of orange juice, so naturally that one didn't work. He felt a pang of sadness as he realized the last time he'd spoken to his brother he'd called him a jerk. He was interrupted from his brooding when his mother lost her battle with OCD and had to return to the kitchen to clean up after him. And she just had to mutter about him "wallpapering with mayonnaise" while she was there. It wasn't his fault! He didn't know how he'd managed to get it on the wall! It was just a smudge anyway.

He finally became sufficiently annoyed to open his mouth. And it had nothing to do with the consumption of a sandwich. But before the scathing remark (that he would've come to regret saying) left his lips he was overwhelmed by a surge of fear. He knew that _normal_ whitelighters weren't so susceptible to what their charges where experiencing but in someone's sick sense of humor his empathy had mixed into the bond, and he felt _everything_ that happened to Ryan.

"What was that?" his mother asked.

"Wh-what was what?" he replied, still unnerved. The gnawing fear was intensifying, only now it was accompanied by confusion.

"You just jumped about a foot in the air."

"Oh...I don't really-" he broke of his sentence and doubled over in pain before falling to the floor, clutching his chest. Piper was at his side in an instant.

"Chris? Chris what's wrong? Talk to me sweetie...Paige! Paige get down here!"

The youngest sister was already reassembling her twinkling blue form in the kitchen before Piper even finished the word "down". "What?" she demanded, "Why all the shouting?" She fell silent as she saw Chris, who was rocking back and forth on the floor, holding his chest and gasping in pain.

"Heal him! Do something!" Piper ordered. Paige dropped to her knees and brushed her hair out of her eyes before holding both hands over Chris. She had no trouble bringing forth the golden glow but she could feel that there was nothing to heal. "There's...nothing wrong with him." she said flatly, and the light faded away from the teenager who was still writhing about on the floor.

"Yeah right! I beg to differ!" Piper said shrilly. Then it stopped. All of a sudden he was fine. Shaky and upset, but physically fine. Piper gave her youngest a minute to catch his breath before asking, "Are you ok now?"

"Y-Yes," he said weakly, "I think...something bad has happened to Ryan."

"Well it doesn't just go away Chris," Paige said, "If you were feeling a charge's pain it wouldn't stop until he was healed or-" She stopped, eyes going wide. They all knew what the second condition for radio silence on the whitelighter channel was.

"I have to find him." Chris said. "And the last time I saw him, he was with THEM." He orbed out before Piper had a chance to forbid it.

* * *

_Yes yes I know that if I end EVERY chapter in such an evil manner that THEY won't let me be a whitelighter when I die. But that's ok, 'cause once I find those silly nymphs I can live forever!...Man I've been feeling diabolical lately. Of course, I did take a psychology test on the net and it told me I was MANIC-DEPRESSIVE. Guess I'm stuck on mania. Which is a good thing. For me at least._


	9. The Brothers and the Dopplegangers

_I know I haven't updated in like 2 months. I'm sorry! I just...lost my inspiration, and I've been a little down lately, but I know that's no excuse. Of course, one week I was gone and the next my net was down...anyway, please forgive me! I still don't understand it but at least a few of you actually read this so...I'll try to continue at a steady pace from now on._

**Disclaimer: Despite the longg interval between updates, my evil plot to take over the world has yet to come into fruition. As such, I STILL DON'T OWN CHARMED!**

* * *

**The Brothers and the Dopplegangers**

"Hmm," mused the man with the lanky blond hair. "Something big is happening. I can feel it."

"I would say it's the whitelighter in you," his younger self sneered, "But you lost _all_ of _those_ powers a long time ago I bet." He knew the evil him _hated_ the fact that there were some powers he still didn't have.

Future Wyatt turned from the murky grayness of his seeing pool to glare at his captive.

The bars on his cage would probably start melting soon. Or he'd be petrified. _Something_ bad was bound to happen when someone gave you such a look. "There _is_ something going on," he chided, "I know 'cause _I_ still have my whitelighter powers." Yes indeed, those bars were glowing red now. But it was necessary to provoke the evil him. He was getting a nonstop jingle. Which meant something really big (and most likely really bad) was going on. And since he was almost certain that they would know of his disappearance by now, he figured it must be a jingle for all whitelighters. The last thing they needed if they were that desperate was the attention of the Source.

"I could kill you right now and nothing would happen to me. I wouldn't disappear." the flickering torchlight found so frequently in the Underworld served to enhance the malicious look that adorned the Source's features.

"Yeah yeah you've told me already." Wyatt _really_ hoped it was just a bluff. "Tell me, why exactly am I here?" Keep him talking. Keep him distracted. Give him a chance to gloat on the flawlessness of his evil plot or something.

"Because your the only one with the power to resist when I take over. If you have anything close to the powers I have that is."

Take over? That couldn't be good. Keep distracting. And extracting. "I guess you forgot about the Power of Three. And the Elders. And my brother."

The Source laughed sinisterly, "Oh please, what are the Elders going to do? _They're pacifists!_ And the aunts and mom, they were far too easy to kill. I would've got little Chrissy too if he hadn't run away to the past."

_What!?_ The past? Wyatt felt sick. How could he ever even think of hurting his family? And yet here was his (future?) self, talking about it as if it were nothing. He was actually bragging about it! He couldn't believe that this was his future. Time to catch him off guard. "Where's Dad?" That hadn't worked the first 50 or so times he asked, so he was surprised when his evil counterpart growled back at him "You just don't know when to quit do you? Fine, I'll give you a hint. He'll be reunited with the rest of the family soon."

Wyatt tried not to think about the way his other self had smirked when saying that.

* * *

"The Elders are calling me Piper, I'm gonna go see if they know what's going on." Paige said tiredly. 

At first Piper just stood there, but then she started to open her mouth (no doubt to tell Paige to forget the Elders and go get her Chris back), so Paige just sighed and orbed out, feeling guilty for running out on Piper like that but knowing that it was necessary.

As soon as she appeared on top of the Bridge she came face to face with Sandra.

"Paige, I'm afraid I have bad news..." The Elder began, but Paige cut her off.

"What happened to his charge?"

Sandra averted her eyes before continuing, "We-we discovered that Ryan was... a darklighter"

"What!?" Paige gaped, oblivious to Sandra saying _was_.

"Half witch, half darklighter." Sandra said quietly, barely audible over the wind whipping around them.

* * *

Chris didn't care how many rules he was breaking by being Up Here. Even though the pain had gone, he could still feel the ache in his chest where it had been. And somehow he just _knew_ that They were involved. 

He stormed through a sea of gold-clad figures, ignoring the incredulous glares and shouts as he made his way to the Council Chamber. When the giant doors came into view, a hooded whitelighter stepped into his path, saying that an important meeting was in progress and that no interruptions were allowed. Chris slashed the air with his hand and he saw the woman's eyes go wide as she was telekinetically shoved aside. The gilded doors received the same treatment, and they flew open with a bang, making those inside jump.

"Christopher!" Odin began, but Chris interrupted.

"Save it," he said coldly, "And tell me what you did to him."

They all just stood there gaping at him, and he noticed that one of their number wasn't wearing robes, but was dressed like a mortal. The man looked like he had seen a ghost at first, but he quickly got his expression under control. Chris had the feeling he had seen the man before, but was to angry to puzzle out where.

"Well! Say something!" He snapped when they just stared at him.

"You guys wanted me to be his whitelighter, not me, but I've tried to help him anyway and I wanna know what happened."

One of them, Roland Chris thought, recovered and began to speak. "Christopher you must understand, we attacked him because he was evil. Imagine, a _darklighter_ in the Heavens!"

Chris blinked. Evil? "Wait What?"

"He was a darklighter you fool boy!" Odin snapped.

"If _I'm_ such a fool then why would _you_ assign me a darklighter to protect!" Chris retorted disbelievingly. How could Ryan be a darklighter? His mother had thought his powers were demonic, but darklighters couldn't throw hellfire around, and the Book hadn't objected to his touch...

"I-I don't believe this!" he said finally, dissolving into a rain of orbs that melted through the floor.

"Wow. I can't believe that me has a charge already. He can't be that old... I know he's still a teenager."

"We thought him best fit to handle the situation," Odin said, "Be grateful that he did not recognize you."

Chris smirked, "When they find out about my Wyatt being here it'll only be a matter of time before I run into one of them. Dad'll probably be up here in a heartbeat." His smile briefly faltered. He had just called Leo dad...

"I think not. Both Leo and Wyatt have gone missing."

That wiped the smile of off Chris's face.

* * *


	10. To Start a Fire

_Okay peoples, I have a plan! I'm gonna try to update at least once a week (school is starting back after all), most likely at the end of the week. This gives me time to do a little bit of work at a time since my webgame addicted parents never let me on the computation device. Plus it'll probably lead to longer chappies (This is by far my longest, but it's still way too short). And to top it off, I actually got some reviews! Huzzah!_

_Hmm ok, onto viewer mail and other junk. Someone mentioned me getting the brother's names mixed up in the beginning of the last chapter...Not sure how, so I'll just do a brief recap before I start this one._

_About the Elders:_

_Odin- He's such a jerk 'cause, well he was never nice in the show, and well, the next bit is more complicated. You see, I tend to incorporate hints or references about fanfics that I find particularly outstanding into my own work. In Warriora's _excellent_ fic **Fishy Chrissy**, Odin is worse than some demons, so it's not hard to see where I got his personality._

_Sarah- I decided to run with this character simply 'cause I don't really know many Elders and a good bit of this fic takes place Up There. Someone (MidnightLightning?) mentioned sharing a name with this character, so I felt guilty having her only appearance be in a bad light._

_Seth- This guy was starting to look sue-ish to me, so I added in a bit of a meddling/too curious nature and bad relations with Future Chris (partly resulting from the aforementioned meddling) to give him some needed character flaws._

_Review Responses:_

_Marcus1233: Um...sorry for being a guy...Anyway, thanks for your...er- interesting reviews. And the semi-violent enthusiasm. I know I spend too much time drowning in sorrow, my personality is decidedly melancholic (a little phlegmatic too). Makes one wonder where I came up with my pen name..._

_History Buff 1990: Heh heh thinking about this story eh? Perhaps we've got some psychic psychosis going on lol. Also, I can't figure out why no one's reading this either...I think I'm getting better though, so thanks for staying with me!_

_Shan: Ah my other consistent reader, thank you for your eh..readership! I'm sorry to not deliver the Future Chris filled chapter you asked for, but alas...he's not the main Chris of this show. Don't worry though, we'll get to see him in future chapters (he's bound to do _something _after being stuck up there with those pesky Elders for so long!)_

_And someone pointed out a glaring mistake I made earlier when Ryan was shot. I let Sandra (an Elder!) touch a darklighter arrow! Bad me! Anyways, I'd love to give credit for this, but I can't find the review so it was probably a pm (which idiot me probably deleted)_

_As always, thanks for reading guys! (Double thanks if you reviewed :P)_

_In case you can't tell, I'm in a good mood! (an inbox full of review alerts does that to me)_

**Disclaimer: I've said it before and I'll say it again: If I actually owned this stuff, it wouldn't be a fanfic! It'd be...an ownerfic or something...**

Last Chapter: (**Brief** Summary)

Wyatt hears the call to all whitelighters (listen to Sarah in this chapter to find out what it was about), and tries to distract his evil self while said evil self holds him prisoner. Evil Wyatt hints that something bad may be in store for Leo.

Sandra tells Paige the truth (some of it at least) about Ryan, and the Chrisses continue bickering with the Elders.

On a side note, Paige and Chris don't here the call 'cause they've been temporarily "disconnected" from the "whitelighternet" so they can get their family back together. Paige's charges have been temporarily reassigned.

* * *

**To Start a Fire**

After muttering the night-vision spell he had used in the Underworld, Chris glanced around quickly, trying to take in his surroundings. Trees. Lots and lots of trees, with plenty of those strange noises that the forest seems so full of at night. The only thing he knew for sure was that this was most definitely not Ryan's bedroom.

He hadn't really expected to get it right on the first try anyway. He had only spent like a minute there. And thanks to the Elders he no longer had a whitelighter bond to guide him. All he could do was hope he had managed to get somewhere close. He set off in what looked most likely to be the right direction, since he could see a moonlit clearing up ahead at least.

As he stepped into the clearing, another quick look around revealed nothing but wild grass and more trees in the distance. Chris made a mental note to ask Ryan where on Earth he lived later. Assuming they would ever get the chance to speak again (always the optimist, our Chris). Pushing that last thought aside, he concentrated briefly before orbing away again.

He landed on a slanted surface, and immediately felt his feet slide out from under him. Because of which he very nearly fell off of the roof he had orbed onto. Of course, after a struggle to save himself from falling off of the edge, he remembered he could just orb down to the ground safely. D'oh. He'd been doing it since he could walk and yet his orbing was always _at least_ slightly off unless his destination was a familiar one.

From what Chris could remember, it looked like the right place. He searched for a second floor window. When he found one, he closed his eyes.

And opened them in a small bedroom devoid of any signs that it had ever been inhabited. Beginning to doubt that he had the right place after all, Chris opened the door and stepped into a long, narrow, window lit hall. He went from door to door, opening each slowly and cautiously. He thought he recognized the bedroom he found on the third try, but it looked empty to him. He took a step forward. And tripped. Landing on his knees, Chris turned around to see what he had fallen over, and gave a yelp of surprise when he saw his former charge lying face down on the floor.

He scrambled over to Ryan's side and tentatively placed his fingers against Ryan's neck. He was rewarded with a faint pulse. So very faint that he'd almost missed it. "Wy-" he flinched as he realized he had been about to yell for his brother. Shaking himself, he took a breath and yelled "Aunt Paige!"

"She won't be able to heal him." Said a voice behind him, and he jumped realizing he had turned his back to the door. Chris whirled around, expecting to face something sinister that had come to finish off a defenseless witch. What he got was a very disturbed looking Sandra. Her face was an image of sadness, and her voice sounded almost frail to Chris when she spoke.

"Healing doesn't work on someone that the Elders don't want to be healed. Plus he's half darklighter..."

"Why does everyone keep saying that!" Chris snapped, "He knows you," he said, thinking back to the apparent acquaintance between the two, " If it were true, how could you have not known something like that?"

"Oh I knew..." she said eerily, but further explanation was interrupted by Paige orbing in right in front of the Elder.

"I'm so sorry I took so long Chris!" Paige said exasperatedly, " But we got attacked by scabbar demons again, those things are disgusting!" She said all this in a rush but let out a squeak of surprise upon noticing the lump on the floor (Chris is the only one with the nite-vis thing goin on and it was dark). She knelt down by her nephew and gently rolled the unconscious teenager in front of them onto his back. They both gasped when they saw the wound, an ugly burn on his chest, which was visible through the places where his shirt had been burned away. Paige held her hands over Ryan's prone form determinedly, but nothing happened.

"I told you it wouldn't work," Sandra said quietly and Paige jumped even worse than her nephew had, having been too distracted to sense the presence of an Elder behind her.

"I will try, but I do not know if it will be enough," Sandra said, as if she had been perfectly clear. She stepped forward and joined the two Halliwells on the floor, despite how undignifying it was for an Elder to behave so. Sandra held her hands over Ryan as Paige had, only this time a dim glow was produced, thought it wasn't strong enough to accomplish anything.

"It's...It's not doing anything," Chris said dejectedly.

"Well, maybe we can help," Paige said, brightening slightly, "I helped Leo heal Cole once, before I learned how to do it my self."

"Who?" Chris asked.

"Never mind, just take my hand. You too Sandra...Er...your Elderness?"

The three joined hands, forming a semicircle over the fallen witchlighter, and the glow brightened. Still, it had little effect. They kept trying, growing more desperate with each second, until the light suddenly got much brighter. Most of the burn marks on Ryan's chest slowly disappeared, and the rise and fall of his chest became visible again as his breathing strengthened. After a few minutes, it became obvious that he was no longer on the brink of death, and the glow emanating from the trio began to fade away. Two let out audible sighs of relief. The third smiled slightly at how much the aunt and nephew where alike.

"Well," began Paige, getting to her feet, assisted by a pull from the already standing Chris, "We can't very well leave him like this. Where are his parents?"

"I dunno," Chris said, looking down at the boy, "Haven't met 'em yet."

"Let us hope that it will be many years before you do Christopher. You are much too young to leave life." Sandra said calmly, that odd note still in her voice.

The joy of success fell from the Halliwell's faces, and the mood once more became somber.

"Then who does he live with?" asked Paige quietly. All three of them were staring at him now.

"Just himself and the memories I suppose," came Sandra's cryptic reply as a frown came over Ryan's sleeping face.

"Ok, that's it!" Chris fumed, "Stop with the borderline psycho act and just tell us what you know. If you know he's a darklighter, why'd you heal him?"

"Darklighter genetics do not necessarily make him inherently evil." The Elder said simply.

Chris just looked confused.

"I think she may be right Chris," Paige murmured after a second, "We've known demons who weren't evil at all. They were willing to give up immortality and powers to become human, even if only for a little while," she said thinking of Drake and his brief time with the Charmed Ones.

"Well everyone else Up There should be in on this then, since they fried him!" Chris didn't know why he was arguing. He had been the one who didn't believe Ryan was evil. He supposed his pessimism and his nerves were getting the better of him. Nervous arguing was a condition his mother had long ago proclaimed him a hopeless victim of. Even if it was a hereditary disease.

"I will...try to reason with them" Sandra stated. "But now that the Underworld has finally found him he will need somewhere to stay?" She looked hopefully towards Paige.

"What kind of whitelighter would I be if I just left him here?" Paige asked, "You don't mind sharing a room with him do you Chris, we can orb his bed and stuff in later, I'd hate to make him live on the couch." She finished with a smile as she thought she saw Chris brighten a little. A rare occurrence to say the least.

"Ok," he said, "But _she's_ coming with us," he pointed at Sandra, "I know I'm not the only one who wants to know why she knows so much about him and Mom is gonna end up summoning an Elder sooner or later. She's getting frustrated at the "lack of support" in the search for Dad and Wyatt."

Sandra frowned at this, but made no objections. "Very well," she said resignedly, "But only if you agree to continue as his whitelighter once it's been proven that he is in fact good."

"Sure let's just go," Chris said impatiently. He knelt down and slung one of Ryan's arms around his shoulder before standing back up, and Paige quickly caught on and did the same before they all vanished in a swirl of orbs.

* * *

"Phoebe it's no use, we'll just have to find them some other way," Piper said as she shut the Book of Shadows and left it on it's podium to go stand beside her sister at the table. 

Phoebe sighed and let the crystal fall onto the map laid out before her. "I guess your right, but I need a break right now."

Piper nodded in agreement, "Let's make some coffee".

They both hated not having a way to get _anything _done, and Piper was starting to wonder if Paige was having trouble finding Chris. She certainly hoped so, since Paige had left in the middle of a demon attack to answer what she could only assume was a call from Chris. Much of the old furniture up here had been melted as a result of the slime spewing things that had attacked them, but oddly enough the old grandfather clock, which had been destroyed so many times downstairs that it had been moved up here for safety, went unharmed. She wanted to be angry with her son for running off like that, but she suspected _she_ would melt just to have him return safely. It was the rest of her family that she was truly concerned about.

Rubbing her eyes tiredly, Piper followed her sister down the stairs, hoping some coffee would keep her going until Chris and Paige got back. She hadn't slept in the two days since all Hell broke loose and decided to abduct a couple of Halliwells.

_A few minutes later_

Piper had just taken a few sips of her coffee, steam still rising from it, when Phoebe said "I think I left my phone upstairs, be right back, I was going to call Henry and tell him Paige will probably be late getting home tonight, you know how "all this magic stuff" makes him nervous." she pushed her chair back and started to leave the table when Piper said "You do realize that there's a phone on the wall right behind you?"

"Yeah but I probably need to see if mine's seeping into the floor," Phoebe called back as she left the room.

Piper closed her eyes and sat quietly holding her mug, her favorite one (which broke even more than the grandfather clock), enjoying a few minutes of peace.

She had almost dozed off when she heard Phoebe scream from upstairs "OH MY GOD! LEO!"

It was not a scream of delight, and Piper was in the attic faster than anyone could've orbed.

* * *

Seth sat on the edge of his bed, head bowed, eyes shut, and frown upon his face as he struggled to sense Sandra. Granted, their closeness and her willingness to let him find her would make it much easier for him then it would be for most other Elders, but she had become so distant since the...incident with Ryan that he'd had a hard time finding her. There was no doubt about it, the woman knew the kid somehow. He couldn't be her son, he was too young, Seth had worked with Sandra for at least a decade now and he knew any relationship he found her involved in would have been created before her death. The only Elder to ever act otherwise was Leo Wyatt, and to be fair his started when he was a whitelighter (though that didn't make it much more common of an occurrence, it was at least heard of). 

Finally, Seth managed to locate her. A little more concentration brought some information on her current situation. She was healing someone? Elders rarely did that in person...What's more, the healing didn't seem to be working. That's what gave it away. The person she was attempting to heal had been declared an enemy of good, so her power alone was fueling the golden glow.

Seth was mildly surprised that she'd managed to find that boy so quickly, he really needed to find out how she knew him, but he didn't hesitate to send his own strength to her. He could feel it flowing through two others as well, whitelighters by the feel of it. They must be trying to augment Sandra's own abilities. Finally he could tell Sandra was relaxing her powers, and he knew it must've worked. With relief, he let go of his own powers and wiped away some of the sweat that had formed on his brow from the effort of stretching his powers to someone so far away. As he stood he felt lightheaded and realized that had taken more out of him than he had expected. He had also expected her to return to the heavens when she finished but she had not, and her presence soon disappeared from his mind altogether as her location swiftly changed.

Deciding to make use of his unexpected free time, Seth left his room and made his way to the Council Chamber, where some Elders would be, without a doubt, continuing their harassment of that surly time traveling Halliwell. Seth liked the present version of Christopher Halliwell much better, even if he didn't actually know him, he disliked the future incarnation enough to make young Chris the favorite by default. He knew they wouldn't let him in there, for they were fearful of losing what little cooperation they had managed to coerce from the cynical witchlighter, but Seth was hoping he'd be able to find something out from one of his colleagues. Christopher had apparently spent much of his time on that alternate plane of existence spying on Wyatt, on the off-chance that he would escape or be contacted somehow. Seth had to hand it to the man, he _did_ always have a plan.

He was grateful to see Sarah in the Great Hall, talking to a couple of whitelighters, her apprentices no doubt. She had been his primary source of information on the interrogation in progress. She was really much milder then one would think after seeing her in the Chamber. Something about that young man seemed to get him on the bad side of even the most benevolent Elders...

"Blessed be," Seth greeted as he approached Sarah. She responded in kind and the two whitelighters bowed slightly before orbing out to give the two Elders privacy.

"Have there been any major revelations?" Seth asked quietly.

Sarah shook her head, "No, not really," she paused for a moment, then added as an afterthought, "Though he did say that the Twice Blessed has probably already been proclaimed the Source of this world."

"You don't consider that a major revelation?" Seth asked dryly.

"Well, that was to be expected wasn't it? He hasn't told us anything we didn't already suspect. Or fear. Or both." she finished finally.

"What about that half-breed darklighter?" she asked, "I heard that Odin has ordered all whitelighters to tell their witches to watch for him, some are even being asked to hunt him down!"

"Why? He doesn't request the specific elimination of other darklighters, and we all know there's plenty of them."

Sarah shook her head slightly as she spoke, "None of them have ever gotten up here have they? _And_ he is a witch! It seems the power created by the union of witch and whitelighter has not gone unnoticed in the Underworld."

They both fell silent for a moment. It was common knowledge that darklighter attacks had increased dramatically in recent months. And while whitelighter numbers dwindled, there seemed to be more darklighters than ever.

"Let me ask you something Sarah," Seth's voice was barely above a whisper now, and he stepped closer to her, "Do you truly believe that the boy is a threat? He was in _my_ chambers. He could've killed Sandra, Odin, me, or all three of us. Not to mention all of the chances he's had to finish off the Halliwell boy."

He could see Sarah thinking through all of this before she spoke, a quality sorely lacking in most people, "No, no I guess I don't. That still doesn't explain where he came from though."

"Ah but that's the question of the hour," Seth said, pleased with his success. Sarah may not be the most influential Elder, but she certainly knew people. _It only takes one spark to start a fire_ Seth thought. It would take some effort, but he was certain that eventually the other Elders would come to see reason. Plus, Seth personally enjoyed undermining the efforts of and/or defying Odin whenever possible.


	11. Crying, spying, hugging, and drugging

_ Blarg, I'm being dragged halfway across the country. Again. And let me tell you, this is a big country to be dragged across! So...Gotta leave early tomorrow, which I suppose is good for you, cuz I'm updating a little early. Unfortunately, It's not as long as I would've liked but oh well. Not much action here either, mostly filler to catch you up on what the various characters are doing when Ryan's not on the brink of death (He does that even more than the CO's)_

_Ah that reminds me...I reccently discovered (While exploring bios and favorites lists) That apparently there are two characters from a show (the O.C. I think, not sure) named Ryan and Seth. It's purely coincidence (and maybe situational irony) that my OCs have names from the O.C. Anyway, enough rambling, on to business. As always, thanks for the reviews!_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. The O.C., or any other show someone could attempt to connect to this. Sue me if you wish, but be warned: I've seen nuns who could flaunt their wealth at me**.

_One (ore two) more thing(s): This chapter title may seem completley random...but it's not really. And next chapter will contain some very much needed Ryan POV. Imagine, a whole chapter where he's awake! Gasp!_

* * *

**Crying, spying, hugging, and drugging.**

Chris had to admit he was relieved that they had saved Ryan. After feeling so powerless to help his brother and their dad, he felt like he had accomplished something by saving this guy. Even if he didn't really know him, and couldn't help but feel slightly wary of his darklighter powers. He still hadn't asked anyone about that fire throwing power, he guessed he was the only one to think of it. He made a mental note to ask Ryan about it sometime, before telling himself to stop worrying about everything and just relax a minute.

Relief, the first _positive_ emotion he's had the chance to experience lately, and as soon as they materialized in the manor it was snatched away from him. They could hear someone sobbing, then they heard Piper screaming "Paige! Paige we need you! _Leo_ needs you!"

Paige quickly transferred Ryan's full weight to Chris and orbed upstairs, Sandra following her. Chris hobbled as fast as he could to the couch and rather rudely dropped Ryan there before orbing up after his aunt. As soon as he arrived, he was hit with a wall of fear. He almost staggered from the empathic overload. Whatever Angel of Destiny that had decided Chris should have an _emotional_ power had a really sick sense of humor. He was not a very touchy-feely kind of guy.

Everyone was huddled around his Dad, who was face down on the floor. S_eems to be a popular destination lately,_ Chris thought bitterly.

Every inch of skin that was visible (a considerable amount since Leo's shirt was missing) was bruised or_ lacerated_ in some way. Chris felt nauseous just looking at it. Right between Leo's shoulder blades, the cuts formed what appeared to be an upside down pentagram. Piper was crying and clutching a stricken looking Phoebe, who appeared close to crying herself. Paige and Sandra were both desperately trying to heal Leo, but the wounds defiantly remained unaffected by the magical healing light.

After a few minutes of fruitless efforts, they stopped trying to heal him. He was alive, but very weak.

"He should be taken to the Heavens," Sandra said in a rush, all her Elder-like serenity vanished, "The other Elders and I stand the best chance of healing him. Our collective power would be far greater than anything we can do for him here."

Piper was reluctant to let him be taken from her sight, but she relented in the end, knowing it was the only way to save her husband. Chris felt that same reluctance, any small faith he had in the Elders had been destroyed by their assault on Ryan, but he felt Sandra was somewhat trustworthy.

Sandra gently placed a hand on each of Leo's shoulders, avoiding the symbol carved into his back, and then they were both gone in a rush of blue and white, Leaving an emotionally shattered family behind.

"It'll be ok Mom," Chris said wrapping his arms around his mother, "They'll heal him and then he can help us get Wyatt back." He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. He had never seen such injuries before. And being present at demon attacks all his life, he had seen his fair share of wounds.

He couldn't even begin to fathom what sort of monster they would have to go up against, but whatever it was, Chris would face it and Wyatt would be rescued. He shuddered involuntarily, and his mother, sensing this, tightened her hold on him.

It was a sign of how truly terrified Piper Halliwell must be that she had been reduced to sobbing and clinging to her various family members. She who had once been made the Goddess of Earth for her levelheadedness was now, to put it lightly, a wreck. The potential fate of her oldest son in the hands of those who had maimed her husband rested as heavily in the minds of her sisters and her youngest sonas it did hers.

_Later..._

Hours had passed, and still Leo had not been returned to them. Paige had gone to watch, arguing that if teenage witches were allowed, a veteran such as herself had every right to be let in, and she orbed back down every thirty minutes or so to report on the progress. Apparently the demons had induced a magical resistance to healing into the wounds, and every available Elder had been assembled in a struggle to overcome the dark magic.

Despite that it was now well past midnight, no one was asleep. Piper had done her best to get Chris to sleep, she knew he had been through the most, having been dragged through Heaven, Hell, and everywhere in between, but he refused to sleep. Instead he sat in the living room, in Leo's favorite chair, and watched over his sleeping charge (though the reinstatement of that status still hadn't occurred, Chris still thought of Ryan as his charge).

Piper and Phoebe sat in the kitchen, talking quietly, and every now and then someone would poke their head through the door to check on Chris for a moment. Partly from fear of attack, and partly to see how the teenager was holding up. Though she knew not to say it out loud, Phoebe thought Piper was looking just to make sure Chris was still there.

Finally, just as the sun was beginning to brighten the edges of the horizon, two whitelighters orbed in, supporting a very weak and semiconscious Leo between them, the pentagram still barely visible as a scar on his back. Paige arrived shortly after they did, and Piper led the two men up the stairs and to her room, where they carefully let Leo down onto the bed. Husband and wife offered their thanks, which the whitelighters accepted humbly before orbing away. In less than a minute the rest of the family was present, and a group hug formed with Leo at the center.

After a few minutes, Piper finally shooed everyone from the room, and shortly after Leo fell asleep. Piper soon followed, a smile, albeit a tired one, finally on her face.

At last, the heavy quiet of fearful waiting that had enveloped the manor became a peaceful silence as its inhabitants finally found rest.

* * *

They had hidden him away the entire time that his father and his aunt had been up here. He reluctantly agreed that it was for the best not to trouble them any further. He sorely wanted to see his family again, and he knew that they would welcome him. But this world already had a Chris. He didn't belong here. He didn't belong anywhere anymore. It was Wyatt's fault things had come to this, and even if Chris had managed to create this future were Wyatt was good, the evil Wyatt from his life had invaded this world, and Chris would stop him, one way or another, before he could ruin this world too.

With a sigh he flopped down onto the bed he'd been given in his small room. The only problem was that he didn't know how to go about it. Tomorrow he could sneak out of here and do some "research" in the Underworld, but he was loathe to risk Wyatt discovering his presence here. After all, he was supposed to be dead.

He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. Developing all the Elder powers he could had been his way of compensating for having only one wiccan power. Only the ability to heal had escaped him, and he secretly feared that this was because he lacked enough love (the emotion that drives healing).

He was particularly adept at sensing though, and as he sank into the familiar meditative state of mind he was greeted with the presences of the angels scurrying about the heavens. Whitelighters and Elders were visible as pinpricks of light in his mind, each dot a different soul. Lacking empathy or telepathy, all Chris could do once he found someone was gage their general condition and location. But that was enough for now.

He focused his senses downward toward Earth. Unintentionally, he immediately homed in on his family. They were all asleep, his mother was stressed but relieved. His father was very faint, and Chris couldn't tell how he was. His aunts were both sleeping peacefully. He blinked when he felt two more presences in the house. One seemed unnaturally familiar, and he guessed that it must be his teenaged self.

The other however, was completely alien to him. It seemed to exude sorrow, and Chris wondered who on Earth could be staying with them. He felt like he had come into contact with this soul before, however briefly, but couldn't figure out where.

He turned his thoughts to his brother, and immediately felt the weight of the Underworld pressing against his mind. It was impossible for whitelighters to sense people down there (unless the whitelighter was there as well) and very few Elders had ever been able to do it. It was the one power Chris truly prided himself on.

Chris gave a sharp intake of breath as he was assailed by two polar opposites of the same person. The first was blindingly good, and Chris had never seen this Wyatt before. Even though his Wyatt had been good at this age, Chris was certain his aura had always possessed a tinge of darkness, unrecognized as it may have been at the time.

Gathering his thoughts, Chris managed to discern that the good Wyatt was in a cage of some sorts, watching as the Evil Wyatt stalked around the room ranting about something.

This was the older brother Chris knew. The Source himself. The familiar darkness that surrounded this man gave Chris the usual sickening feeling. His malicious nature was just as alive as ever.

Which made Chris wonder why the teenage Wyatt seemed unharmed. It was not like his evil counterpart to leave prisoners able to speak, let alone let them sit there unscathed. Perhaps he lacked the courage to kill his self, whether or not it was an alternate universe version of him. Perhaps he was afraid that his counterpart would have enough power to fight back. They technically were the same people after all. Though the older one had undoubtedly amassed an arsenal of demonic powers unimaginable to the innocent one.

Chris knew that putting a little more energy into this effort would reveal to him the location of these two. He would actually be able to glimpse them. The problem was that his presence would be palpable then, and the Source was highly likely to notice him.

After a brief battle with himself. Chris decided it would be worth it if he could free the teenage witch he had given his entire life to save. He subtly sharpened his focus on the two, and a blur of colors swirled in front of his mind's eye, resolving into a view of the Source pacing back and forth in front of a large basin, and a large barred cage against the wall that contained the true Twice Blessed.

Chris quickly tried to study every detail of the room, hoping to get a clear enough picture of it to be able to orb to it eventually. Suddenly, he noticed that the basin was actually a seer's pool. He watched in horror as it's gray surface rippled into an exact copy of what he was seeing.

The Source noticed this immediately, and turned to the pool suspiciously. He quickly guessed what was going on and cast his mind about furiously, searching for the spy.

Panicked, Chris barely retracted his senses in time to avoid detection. Or so he hoped. Unfortunately, he didn't think he'd be able to orb down there. He mentally scolded himself for being so wreckless, and then silently prayed that Wyatt didn't know that it was him.

* * *

"I didn't expect for him to live, you see," the Source said casually, "But in the event that he did, I made sure that the marks would never completely fade from his body. They will know what they are up against and they will surrender to me." he finished fiercely, taking a moment to glare at the wide-eyed version of himself sitting in the cage before continuing his pacing.

"It should still clearly send the message that I am not to be trifled with," he went on, " But-" he froze. The tyrant whipped around to face his seeing pool as it's surface rippled into a disembodied view of the very room that they were in.

"Someone dares to spy on me!?" he roared before putting his hands to his temples and shutting his eyes tightly.

Wyatt just stared blankly as he sat cross legged in his prison and watched as the image in the seeing pool quickly vanished, leaving only the dull grayness of the mysterious substance within. He hoped whoever had been watching them was on his side, since he gathered that not many were able to find evil incarnate when he did not wish to be found.

But if Wyatt was truly the only threat to the Source, as he had been told, then why was the man getting all worked up over this supposed intruder. And for that matter, who could find them like that? He sighed knowing his questions would remain unanswered, though the news that his father had survived what the Source had intended to be his death lifted his spirits slightly.

He shifted around uncomfortably for a few moments before the black-clad horror that shared his name ordered some demons to escort him to the facilities. This was not a humanitarian act, but simply a desire for his evil lair to remain clean. Wyatt had naturally tried escape the first time he had been out of sight of his Sourcely majesty, only to discover that his powers didn't work.

He suspected it was in the food they gave him every other day (even considering that it was totally unidentifiable as an edible substance it had a funny taste) but there was nothing to be done about that. He would soon starve if he skipped enough of these meals to regain his powers, and that was only if Dr. Doom over there didn't have someone force it down his throat.

He was released from his confinement once a day, solely for this purpose, and it lasted only minutes so Wyatt relished this chance to move. Not to mention he had to...make it count. Lest he soil himself. Shuddering at the humiliation and further misery that such an occurrence would bring, Wyatt followed his demonic guards down the narrow rock corridor, on his way to what his evil self described mockingly as "the only place outside your cage that you'll ever see."

Despite what Chris might imply (or more accurately, say so to all who would listen), Wyatt was not stupid. He was fairly certain that he was only being kept alive to lure his family down here to their deaths. Not all of the Halliwells would come at once on such a mission, therefore eliminating any possibility of the Source's defeat. Whereas if one were to assault the Manor, one could find any number of magical creatures or witches present. Most unfavorable for the side of evil.

He seemed to be thinking this a lot lately, but all he could do was hope. Unfortunately for him, hope was becoming difficult to maintain in the presence of his long haired counterpart. He had once commented that the hair made the Source rather pretty, and as a result Wyatt's "privileges" had been revoked for a day. His bladder was still sore.

Despite his hardships, however unusual they may be, he still remained determined to find a way to escape before his family was lured down here. Wyatt doubted he could handle his evil self, let alone anyone else. They would come for him, not knowing, or caring, what they were up against, and it would be the end of them. So he swore to himself he'd find a way out.

Later that night, after the demonic bodyguards had followed their master out of the room (evil has to sleep too), Wyatt cautiously stretched an arm through the bars of his cage, as if reaching for the seeing pool. He waited for a moment, unsure whether his plan would work.

Just as he was starting to feel foolish, he noticed the surface of the pool ripple a little. Encouraged, Wyatt centered all of his thoughts on his dad. The pool rippled and stopped moving, but he couldn't see well enough in the darkness to discern what was in it.

He looked around the cage and found a rock in one corner. "Rock!" he called out quietly, and it vanished briefly in a swirl of orbs before the cage's barriers kicked in and it fell back to the floor with a thud. Still, even a few seconds would be enough. "Rock!...Rock!" he kept calling for the rock, using the brief flashes of orb light to see. He continued this process to look in on his family. They were all fine. He was particularly delighted to see Leo seemingly unharmed. Perhaps the Source was more of a bluff than Wyatt had originally thought.

After finding that everyone was okay he made himself as comfortable as possible, pleased with tonights events. He'd managed to work the seeing pool, and he'd found that the cage's enchantments prevented escape instead of blocking his powers all together. He also reasoned that the same was probably true of whatever they were putting in the mush that they fed him since he had been able to orb a rock. Even if the bars to his oversized birdcage were indestructible, this added a little more light to the flickering hope within him. Underestimating _this_ Wyatt Halliwell simply because he was good could prove to be a fatal mistake. Finally, the young witchlighter shut his eyes in an attempt to catch a few hours of sleep before the Scourge of all Worlds returned to harass him some more.

* * *

_Feedback time please! This chapter is right at 3k long. Is that too much or too little? I think it's the latter but you guys are the ones reading so you tell me!_

_Random Question (Inspired by the equally random Shan's questions in her story :D )- Odin (since he's so generous) offers to give you any power ever used on the show. Which one do you pick and why? If you guys answer I will too :P_

_Also, I'm thinking of doing a crossover fic. It'll be Chriscentric (duh!) but it's sort of a wierd cross... Might as well say it... X-men... think it'll stand a chance, I've already got half a chapter down..._

_Thanks for reading, and please review! Reviews make my heart smile (and saying that just made me vomit a little)_


	12. Is There an Echo in Here?

_Gah this is late, but it couldn't be helped, they wouldn't get off of the computer! In more relevant matters however, this is just a chapter to kind of set the stage for this new part of Ryan's life- life at the Halliwell manor. This piece was rushed, it's _very_ differemt from what I originally had written, so it may have more mistakes, I didn't really go through it much. _

_My thanks to Darien for pointing out my many, many mistakes and offering some much needed constructive criticism. Though it may not do much good, I'm usually too dense to catch my own mistakes, no matter how many times I proofread. Sigh_

_Hmm I suppose it's my turn to answer the powers question. I intentionally made it an annoying choice by saying it could only be one, otherwise I would just say Paige's powers. I'm torn between orbing and healing myself, though orbing would probably prove more useful. If you can get around that fast people might not need to be healed so much..._

_Shan: I had to choose, I'd probably say the ability to turn into animals and to communicate with them. And if I had to narrow it down to one (and I couldn't communicate with them when I transformed into them), I would want to be able to communicate with them. Yes, that's how obsessed I am with animals, LoL._

_History Buff 1990: If I could chose any power used on the show it would be... Telepathy. Because I would be able to get answers from teachers in class, making my grades sky-rocket, hehe, and I could turn my ears to ppl around me, work out exactly what they think of me, weather or not they're trying to genuinely be nice and sociable, or trying to mock me so they can run back to their friends and have a laugh. I'd also like to work on it so that when it advances I can eventually control minds, that would ROCK! The possibilities are basically endless with telepathy, so that's my choice. _

_lizardmomma: If I could have one pwer I guess that it would be..I have no idea. Too many to choose from that would be good...astral projection, telekinesis, the molecular control Piper has, telepathy not empathy, orbing and there are too many reasons as well_

_As always, my undying gratitude to all those who reviewed!_

_Also, in respone to an email... no this isn't a slash fic (blushes) Not that I'm closed minded or anything mind you, it just isn't my thing..._

**Disclaimer: If I _did_ own Charmed, do you think I'd be doing this? No, I'd be in my office, spinning around in my fancy chair while I payed someone to do all the writing for me. Shan and Warriora would probably become very rich, very fast :P**

* * *

**Is There an Echo in Here?**

Ryan tried to blink the blurriness out of his eyes as he sat up. It took him a moment to realize he was on a couch in a living room. One he'd never seen before. After another moment he remembered that he was supposed to be dead. Odin had made sure of that. Sliding his hand under a t-shirt (also unknown to him), he discovered that the burns on his chest were almost entirely gone. There will still a few spots that made him wince when he touched them, but he was far better off than he had been.

He threw off a blanket he'd never seen either and cautiously stood up.

This whole waking up without a clue thing was starting to get old, though Ryan guessed he should just be grateful that he _was_ waking up at all. He figured Chris was the only person that would've found him and had him healed, but he padded across the living room quietly nonetheless. He could hear voices coming through an open doorway, and after a moment's hesitation, he stepped through, throwing arm at the ready.

A flood of relief washed over him when he saw a sleepy looking Chris sitting next to a man, and across from two women. One of the women was chatting animatedly, she had red hair and pale skin, the other had one hand on her forehead and the other on a coffee mug. Chris' mom was bustling around behind them, serving food.

She was the first to notice him standing there, and a smile was on her face in an instant.

"Ryan, your up! Perfect, your just in time for breakfast, have a seat!"

He mumbled his thanks and sat down next to Chris, who was grinning at him.

"Nice to see you without any mortal wounds," he said, "This is my dad," he pointed at the man.

"Call me Leo," the man said.

"And these," Chris continued, gesturing at the two women "Are my Aunts Paige and Phoebe,"

"Nice to meet you," they said simultaneously in chipper tones.

Noticing the look on Ryan's face, Chris said, "Yeah they're creepy like that. And they're morning people. Ugh."

Ryan grinned nervously as Paige whacked her nephew upside the head. This family was _strange_.

Piper noticed this as the first time she'd seen him smile (true they hadn't met under the best of circumstances), though she also noticed the guarded look in his eyes and the way the smile seemed strained.

"So," she said," I'm sure your wondering what's going on. Sooo Chris is gonna tell you! By the way, what do you want to drink? OJ or milk?" Apparently very little fazed these people, she was acting as if having a virtual stranger at the breakfast table was commonplace.

After Ryan had chosen milk, so quietly that he had to repeat himself three times, Chris huffed.

"Fine. We found you in the floor after you were er- attacked? And Sandra helped is heal you, so we brought you here while she's Up There arguing with the idiots over whether or not your good."

"And she's sorely mistaken if she thinks I didn't notice her using Leo as an excuse to get out of questioning," Piper said, handing Ryan his glass. She frowned when she saw something akin to panic flash across his face.

Trying to lighten the mood, she said, "What's wrong? I promise the milk's not spoiled?" Even Leo rolled his eyes.

"T-Then you all know..." Ryan wasn't able to make himself finish, so he studied his milk to avoid meeting any of the inquiring gazes directed at him.

"Know what? That your half-darklighter? Oh honey that's nothing. Just ask Phoebe _what_ she married!"

Piper winced. Subtlety was _not_ Paige's forte, and Ryan was obviously very self-conscious about his heritage. Never mind the fact that they already intimidated him.

Phoebe glared at Paige, who was oblivious to her offense, as Leo shouted, "Woah, wait! Darklighter! You invited a darklighter to breakfast!"

Ryan could feel his face burning now, and he said, "I-I'm sorry. I should just go..." With that he bolted from the room.

"Nice one Leo!" Piper growled as she followed Chris out, who was already running after his would be charge.

"Somebody's in trouble," Phoebe said, jabbing her fork accusingly at Leo as she grabbed some more pancakes.

"Yup," Paige agreed simply. She had produced a newspaper from somewhere and had just snapped it open.

"You'd think the torture, living hell, and permanent scarring would get me _some_ sympathy," Leo grumbled.

"Do you mean psychological or physical scarring?" Phoebe asked, leaning forward curiously.

"Both. And no I do not want to talk about it," Leo replied sourly.

Swallowing a bite of pancake, Phoebe frowned, "Fair enough, but you know you haven't actually got to the living hell part yet."

Paige smiled into her newspaper, "Oh he knows that Phoebe, this his hardly the first time he's made Piper mad."

Leo just glowered at his own pancakes. His mouth _did_ have a habit of getting him in trouble. Even if he didn't mean what he said, the whole speaking without thinking thing Piper constantly accused him of never failed to appear at the worst possible time.

"You really should watch what you say" Phoebe said as if reading his mind. He arched an eyebrow at her. His wife had rubbed off on him over the years.

"That kid was already so nervous he was about to make _me _start sweating," the empath continued, " And you just made it worse!"

* * *

"Ryan wait! You can't just leave! Where would you go?" Chris called out as he ran down the front steps after Ryan, who was making fast progress down the sidewalk. 

"I'll walk home," he replied, not stopping or looking back. "What city is this?"

"San Francisco."

"Oh. Okay maybe I won't walk. But I'll get back somehow."

"Okay, Chris began as he jogged after Ryan, "And what are you gonna do when half of the Underworld is waiting for you?"

"I-I'll manage. Somehow." He sounded as if he were trying to convince both of them.

"Hey!" Piper was running toward them, "Wait!" Ryan grimaced and kept going. Chris shrugged back at his mother and followed the boy.

"I said WAIT!" As she spoke, everything in sight, cars, birds, people, everything, stopped moving.

"Oops," she said breathlessly as she caught up to the two boys.

Ryan had stopped and was looking around in awe. Chris just looked amused.

"You'd better undo that before someone sees."

"Just as soon as you orb us back, "And you," she jabbed a finger at Ryan's chest, who flinched, "You are coming with us. We're gonna finish breakfast and then we can go get your stuff."

"M-My stuff?"

Chris grinned, "Yeah we're roomies now!" He clapped Ryan on the shoulder and he flinched again.

"Wait what? I can- you'd let me stay with you? I mean I'm a-" He was blushing as he stammered.

Chris cut him off, "Yeah we're not usually this understanding, but Sandra vouches for you, and she's the only Elder Mom will even half-way listen to, Dad included."

"Besides," Piper chimed in, "My maternal instincts won't allow me to throw you out onto the streets,"

"Mom, leave him alone, if you make him blush anymore he's gonna start glowing," Turning to Ryan, Chris said, "And you just relax dude. You don't have to be nervous around us, we don't bite."

"Well," Piper began, "Once upon a blue moon we mauled some whitelighters..."

Seeing Ryan's eyes go wide, Chris tried to appease him, "She's kidding. I think... In any case, homicidal urges are not hereditary so I promise I won't let anyone maul you. Now will you please just come with us?"

This was all happening way too fast. Could he trust these people? He was reluctant to, but then again didn't he owe Chris his life like three times over? If they meant any harm they could've just let him die...

"But," He was grasping for straws now, trying to find an excuse, "What about Leo?" Aha! It was too good to be true. No way an Elder would let him stay in his house..

Piper smiled apologetically at him, "Oh don't worry about him. He's been through _a lot_ recently but he should still have enough sense to know I wouldn't invite _evil_ to my breakfast table!"

"Mom, just freeze everything again so we can go. Unless you wanna walk back?"

Piper looked around curiously, "Huh, I didn't notice it unfreeze. And we are most definitely orbing, personal gain be damned, I'm getting old." After a moment she added, "And if either of you repeat that to anyone I will not hesitate to blow you up. So you'll stay with us Ryan?"

"Yeah! I mean...of course! I mean thank you!"

Chris laughed, "Like I said, just relax, Mom would've dragged you home with her the first time she laid eyes on you if she'd known you were on your own."

"Probably," agreed Piper with a smile, "Now let's go, running after you two was tiring. Chris what are you laughing at?" She raised her hands threateningly as an explosion was heard behind them.

"Geez Mom I didn't think you were serious about the blowing up thing!"

"It wasn't me..." They all three turned to look back in the direction of the Manor.

Wordlessly, Piper froze everything again and took each boy's hand in her own. Then they were gone.

* * *

"Hello, what's going on people?" Piper asked as they materialized behind the front door. 

"Darklighter." They turned to see Sandra standing in the doorway to the living room.

"I had come to tell you that we have garnered enough support in Ryan's favor, for now at least, to have him designated as a witch in need of protection."

"So I'm his whitelighter again?" Chris asked, "I don't feel it,"

"Now that you've consciously thought about it you should," Sandra said simply.

"Wow. That's creepy," She gave a small smile.

"Not that I'm not thrilled to see you," Piper began, " 'cause believe me I _am_, but how does the darklighter attack fit into all of this?"

"It doesn't. I suspect he was after Ryan. They seem quite determined to have him killed." Piper thought she caught a hint of sadness on Sandra's face, but it was gone in an instant.

"So, what was the explosion?" Ryan asked, finally speaking.

"The darklighter tried to shoot Sandra," Paige said as she walked up beside the Elder. "For a pacifist, you sure are packin some heat."

"SO darklighter have exploding arrows now?" Piper said.

"Oh no, Sandra fried him. And the TV. That was the noise."

"What else is new," Piper sighed, "Where are Phoebe and Leo?" Just then they both walked up next to Paige.

"Well that was the most awkward healing I've ever done," Leo said, and much to Piper's surprise, she discovered that Phoebe was blushing.

"Eh"? Chris contributed.

"Phoebe got boob tubed in the boobs," Paige snickered.

"Oh grow up!" Phoebe snapped as she left them standing there. "I'm going to work. You can stay here and laugh all you want."

Piper frowned. Even considering the circumstances, it was unlike Phoebe to react that way. She was not known for her modesty, to say the least.

There was silence for a moment, and then both Elders said at the same time, "I have to go,"

"No, Sand-" The Elder was gone in a swirl of blue lights, "-dra... Ooh I'll get her eventually, and when I do..."

Leo stepped forward and cleared his throat nervously. "Um. Ryan, I'm sorry about earlier. Paige explained things to me, and I... I just blurt stuff out sometimes,"

"Eloquently put or not, he speaks the truth," Chris said with a smile, and his father frowned at him.

"Your still in trouble you know," Piper said, leaning up to kiss Leo, who grimaced at the news before orbing out.

"Okay people, let's get busy," Piper said once again all business, "Paige, I'll come help you as soon as I get the kitchen cleaned up. You two go finish your breakfast."

"Help me what?" Paige asked, confused.

"Get with it woman! We have a son to find! Chris, after you eat help Ryan get settled in."

And with that Piper turned and went into the kitchen as Paige ascended the stairs grumbling to herself.

* * *

"Um, right, Follow me," Chris said as he started up the stairs towards his bedroom. 

Once they were inside, Chris shut the door and sighed. "I know we're supposed to be getting your stuff moved in, but do you think it could wait a while? I have to try and find Wyatt, it's killing me and Mom and Aunt Paige aren't getting anywhere."

Seeing the lost look on his charge's face he continued seriously, "He's missing, some demons took him and my dad a few days ago. Obviously we got _him_ back."

"Oh..." Ryan said dumbly.

"We think it's the Source, since he sent the Triad to torture Dad. They're supposed to be vanquished you know. Anyway, I won't be gone long, I just need to do some uh research. Help yourself to my stuff, Dad may have healed the TV before he left, and don't tell Mom. Kay?"

Ryan just nodded as the serious look washed over Chris' face again and then his whitelighter was gone.

He sighed as he sat down on the bed and looked around the room.

A desk sat in one corner. A sleek black computer on one end, and a note book and papers scattered all over the other. A bunch of weird plants were growing in the other corner at the head of the bed, with a window in between them and the desk.

A wall-length closet filled the space across from the bed.

"My stuff is so not gonna fit in here," Ryan said, walking over to examine the papers spread across the desk. He hesitated to look, but Chris had said to help himself, and the papers had been left out... So look he did. And he was amazed. The pages were full of spells, incantations, and what looked to be detailed potion instructions. The neat-but-cramped handwriting and meticulous attention to detail would've screamed Chris to anyone who knew him, but Ryan didn't so he was just blown away instead of amused.

Feeling slightly guilty, he picked up the notebook and flipped through the pages. He found a section labeled "Combat Magic", and he skimmed through it with interest. It was mostly short, quick, defensive charms and wards, with a few generalized vanquishing spells.

The next section seemed to be a random assortment of spells. He couldn't help himself when he saw a page labeled "To Reveal One's True Nature". He read carefully and did as it said.

He took a blank piece of paper and recited the spell.

"Ancient magic reveal to me,

the true nature of he.

He who holds this in his possession

shall be known by me without concession."

The instructions said the paper needed to touch something the target owned (everything in sight), so Ryan put it down on the bed. As soon as it touched, the paper glowed a faint white, and words started flowing across the page in a slanted script.

_He will never fail nor betray_

_Expect loyalty till your last day_

_No Evil can be found in his heart_

_He is cunning, clever, and smart._

_What he fears more than any ne'er do well _

_Is being the last Halliwell_

_In the future the legions of Hell_

_Will be decimated by Christopher Halliwell_

According to the instructions, the glow of light indicated the most prominent traits of the target.

White was for honor and virtue.

_Oh come on,_ Ryan thought, he has to have _some_ flaws right?

Then again, Chris was the prodigy who had devised all of this in the first place.

Just as he was about to look through some more spells he heard a knock on the door. Throwing the notes aside, he had just grabbed the reading on Chris' bed and stuffed it into his pocket when Piper came in.

"Hi," she said, smiling at Ryan, who offered a weak "Hello," in return.

"So where's Chris?" The smile fell from her face fell as she noticed the room didn't have any new possessions. "He left you here didn't he? He is so busted!"

After a moment she patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Don't take it personally, he's just worried about his brother. Even if I specifically said no Underworld." She finished with a sigh.

"Just make yourself at home, I'm gonna go summon him. And most likely bind his powers," The way she said that with a smile as she left made chills run down Ryan's spine. He definitely wasn't getting on her bad side.

He sat back down, trying not to sigh again. His doubts about Chris were almost completely gone now. Regardless of the inferiority complex that paper caused, it did ease his anxiety about the Halliwells. Some of it at least.

It didn't count that Chris wasn't here right now. He had a good reason. Chris wasn't ditching him, right? It was okay to get comfortable here, right? So why was he so scared of these people?

* * *

Chris blinked in confusion as the golden lights deposited him in the attic, right in front of a very angry Piper. Surprise quickly turned to indignation. 

"Mom! How am I supposed to find anything out if you yank me out of the interrogation?"

"Don't even start with me Chris," Piper said warningly, hands on her hips as she stood in front of the Book of Shadows.

"Look, your Aunt Phoebe wants to talk to you, she says it's important," She was massaging her temples now, "Just go, I'll kill you later."

Chris started to orb out, but Piper reached out and pulled him back down, something she'd long ago bullied Leo into teaching her.

When he'd reformed, she just stood there holding her arms out expectantly. Chris rolled his eyes, but stepped forward into his mother's hug anyway.

"For a murder-to-be, you sure are affectionate." he said wryly.

"And for someone in as much trouble as you are, you sure are brave," She countered as she let him go.

"Oh!" She said suddenly, "I almost forgot!" She thumped him on the nose.

"Ow! What was that for!?" He demanded, rubbing his nose.

"For running out on Ryan like that! He looked so sad..."

"He always looks like that!" Chris said defensively.

"You aren't around enough to know! Now go. And so help me if I find out that you've been in the Underworld you will never orb, and possibly never walk, again!"

He just smiled at her as he orbed out to go talk to his Aunt.

She stood there for a moment before she noticed her sister laughing. Turning to face Paige, who was at the table, she asked "What's so funny?"

"You know, " Paige began as she stood up, "Despite all the sarcasm and witty retorts, he is _such_ a mamma's boy."

Piper smiled "Yeah, and he knows I can't stay mad at him. I swear he gets that pitiful look on his face and you'd think I beat him or something!"

* * *

_Since I like ya so much, I'll give you a preview!_

_Next Chapter (Part of it at least): Chris finds the spell Ryan used on his floor and decides to cast it on Ryan. It doesn't come back near as peachy perfect as it did with Chris!_

_Plus I'm thinking about throwing some character bios in as well, it might help a little._

_Now, on to randomness! _

_What's the last thing you listened to (specifically, not general noise) before sitting down to read this chapter?_


	13. Signs of Change

_Yes, it's shocking, but I _am_ still alive after all. I know this is a short chapter but it's not really going the way I want... the story has sort of come to life and is wandering off in a new direction. Not to say that's a bad thing, it just means things are going to take a little bit longer to work out. I'd originally planned on revealing some of Ryan's past in this chapter, as well as introducing a new major character, but as I said, things didn't turn out the way I originally planned. Though if you pay attention you can probably figure out who's gonna meet the new character :p_

_ I hate to leave it short, but I'm leaving soon and this is the only way it's getting loaded before Christmas. So...help me out here guys, I've been in need of inspiration, and knowing someone is actually bothering to read this is a real confidence booster._

_Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. Your the only thing that's kept me writing. It's at this point that I feel I should point something out. You must all thank History Buff 1990 for this update. She convinced me that my writing doesn't totally suck (just mostly), and has sort of (unintentionally I'm sure) prodded me into the continuation of this story. Your the best, HB! _

_Happy Holidays _

**Disclaimer: I'm not stealing anything ok? It's not mine, so don't say I claimed it, I've already got enough coal in my stocking as it is. **

* * *

**Signs of Change**

The blond darklighter scowled as she vanquished the demon in front of her with a concentrated blast of dark orbs. She looked up from the scorch marks on the stone floor and cast her gaze over the demons assembled in front of her. "Would anyone else like to voice a complaint?" She asked coolly.

No one said anything.

"Good," She said with a smirk, "Then go and inform the leaders of your clans that the same fate awaits all who oppose me. There is no other option. With the Underworld united under me, not even the Source will challenge me."

Her frown deepened. "Well, what are you waiting for! Go!" She shouted, vanquishing another demon for good measure. The other demons hastily shimmered out. A darklighter stepped forward from the shadows and bowed respectfully before addressing the teen.

"My Lady, I have just received reports that the vampires have pledged their allegiance to the Source. As have the harpies and the kazis." He grimaced as he delivered this news, as if he was epecting that fatal cloud to descend on him as well.

The girl did not notice this, as she had produced a sheaf of parchment from somewhere and was lazily letting her eyes flow down the page. She sighed, "The list of vanquishes just keeps getting longer...Very well, send an envoy to the vampires offering them one last chance to join me. If they refuse, I will destroy them personally. The others are too weak to matter. You may leave now."

The man bowed once more before vanishing into dark orbs. The girl ran her fingers through her hair as she left the torch lit cavern for a dark hallway. She had much killing to do. She also had many worries. Even without demonic support this new Source who had come out of nowhere was incredibly powerful. If he found her it would mean disaster, though he didn't seem to be looking too hard for her and her opposing faction. Some of her spies had said he'd been preoccupied with a prisoner. It piqued her interest that a single person could distract the Source from his conquest of all things, but she was grateful for it, even if she knew it was unlikely to last. Much like the wretch who had been made prisoner to the Source.

Still, the darklighter core grew stronger every day, and once she had scared enough clans into supporting her, she could make her move and declare herself the true ruler of the Underworld. Meanwhile, those idiotic Elders were doing absolutely nothing to keep her underlings from decimating the whitelighters of the world. It was almost sad, whitelighters possessed natural powers they could use against foes, such as energy balls, and in the case of Elders, bolts of pure energy akin to lightning. And yet they didn't even try to fight back. This whole operation could almost be called easy.

But there was still this so-called Source. There's no doubt that he poses a serious threat to the fulfillment of her vengeance. Even as she consolidated demonic clans and strengthened the darklighter core, others rallied to this new power. She had no allusions of standing a chance in a battle with this enemy. Not yet anyway. But if she could kill off her remaining blood ties, she would be able to fully awaken her dark powers and transform into her true self, shedding useless humanity in favor of power.

She looked up ahead to see torchlight spilling into the otherwise dark passage. She turned and entered the room, pulling a curtain shut behind her. Quickly sensing to make sure none of her darklighters were around, she walked over to a drawer and pulled it slightly open. She pulled out an old picture, taken when she was only a small child. True she had only agreed to that picture to shut her fool of a mother up, but the girl did have to admit it was important to her. It was all she had left. The world was going to pay for that.

"I will make you proud father," the teenager said to the picture, "I promise."

* * *

"Whaddya want old woman?" Chris said playfully as he snuck up behind his Aunt.

"Oh! Chris!" Phoebe jumped as she turned away from her file cabinet to face her nephew, "Sit mister," she pointed at the chair in front of her desk.

"Oh don't tell me you need help for your column!" he said dramatically, " As omnipotent as I may be, you did marry a Cupid, surely he can help,"

"Like I, Ask Phoebe, would consult a 16 year-old for romantic advice!" She sat down at her desk.

A serious look came over her. "It's important Chris. I didn't rush out earlier because of Paige's terrible puns, it was because Ryan was about to overwhelm me. How did you not feel it? I figured you would have it worse, regardless of your sucky empathing skills, since your his whitelighter."

Chris scowled. So what if he wasn't a very good empath? He was really good with telekinesis and he was at least good enough with empathy to tell whether or not someone meant him harm. You couldn't have everything.

"I don't know why I didn't notice it," he finally said, "Maybe I was too caught up in my own emotions. I do feel nervous when I'm around him though, I just figured it was because of all the kidnapping and stuff."

"I think it's more likely you were just channeling Ryan's anxiety. That kid seems to have some serious trust issues. Even innocents usually feel right at home with us after a few minutes." Phoebe said thoughtfully. After a minute she added, "Though Paige is blunt enough to keep him nervous and Piper is...well, Piper enough to keep him scared."

"So is that all you wanted? I don't know what you want me to do about it," He mentally kicked himself. That had come out wrong. He just didn't know what to do, it wasn't that he didn't want to help..

Phoebe sighed. "Yes, Chris that's all I wanted. You don't have to sound so uncaring... Just keep in mind that there has to be a reason the darklighters are so determined to get rid of him."

"Maybe they just don't like half-breeds?" Chris suggested, though he too thought there was more to the story.

"Whatever the case, he's your roommate now, if anyone can get him to calm down it'll be you. Oh and before you go, could you get your mom to make an empath blocking potion for him, I've still got the headache from earlier."

"Yeah sure," He said as he stood up and orbed out, leaving Phoebe to try and get some mail read for her column.

* * *

As soon as he arrived in the Underworld, Chris ducked for cover, grateful that the room he'd appeared in was deserted. He didn't expect to be able to sense his brother, he couldn't last time, but he tried anyway. And was surprised to feel that he wasn't very far away, only a room or two between them. He jumped to his feet an ran out from behind the rock he'd used to hide. Already dashing down a winding hallway, he didn't notice that there was something very different about Wyatt.

* * *

"So...what's Ryan doing? Just sitting in Chris' room?" Paige asked her sister as they entered the kitchen.

"Yeah, until Chris comes back, why?" Piper asked as she opened a cabinet and began digging around for a pot.

Paige sat down at the table, propping her head up with her arms. "I dunno, I just figured he was probably bored. Think he'd like to see Magic School?"

Piper's head had disappeared into the cabinet by now, "Probably. Why don't you take him. It sounds like your the one who's bored though."

"I think I will." Paige said, ignoring the last part of her sister's answer, "What _are_ you looking for? It's too early to start lunch."

"I'm making a locator potion. It's supposed to transport you to what you've lost."

"So why not use the potions cauldron in the attic?" Paige asked.

"I am. It's full of vanquishing potion." She replied as she hefted large pot onto the counter, shutting the cabinet with a foot.

"_You_ left a potion unattended?" Paige said in mock surprise.

"It's not over a fire or-" Piper was interrupted by a loud bang. "-or maybe it is," she finished dejectedly.

"Well, I'm not cleaning that up, see ya!" Paige chirped brightly as she dissolved into a swarm of orbs.

"Personal gain!" Piper yelled after her youngest sister, whom she knew had only orbed upstairs.

Piper frowned as she straightened up. This was not her day.

* * *

Even as lost in thought as he was, Chris' floor was really starting to bore Ryan. Still, he jumped when a cloud of blue lights condensed into the red haired woman he'd met earlier, Paige.

"Hi there," she said warmly, "I figured you were getting bored, so I thought I'd see if you want to look around Magic School. So, what do you say?"

He was caught off-guard. She seemed kind of random. "Um, what's Magic School?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like. A school for witches. Leo's the headmaster. We might run into some of Chris' friends too. I don't really know many of them though, I never see them around the house."

"Well...Okay." He stood cautiously and looked at Paige expectantly.

She smiled and took his hand, and they were off.

* * *

Piper sneezed as acrid smoke billowed out of the pot she was standing in front of when she threw in some more lavender. The eldest Charmed One was beginning to get frustrated. The potion was taking too long to prepare (especially after the fiasco in the attic, which she_still_ hadn't dealt with), and she was beginning to get anxious about Leo. Not just because he was already out of the house again, but because no good ever came of Elder meetings that lasted...well, long enough for Odin to open his mouth. _And they're supposed to be good guys! _ She thought incredulously as she sneezed again.

This just was not her day. Potions ingredients never made her sneeze, and she wasn't allergic to any of it. Then there was the vanquishing potion that was currently vanquishing the varnish off of the attic floor. The killer headache that was starting to form couldn't be ignored either. She blamed stress. And worry.

Piper had a sneaking suspicion that when this whole ordeal was over with poor Wyatt wouldn't be seen without his mother somewhere in the vicinity for at least 20 years. Which reminded her that as soon as her baby was safe again, she and her sisters (whether or not they wanted to) would be going on a crusade through the Underworld the likes of which had never been seen before.

Dutifully she filled several bottles with the disgusting looking green stuff (She didn't know how accurate the potion was) before wearily trudging her way up the stairs, most uncharacteristic behavior for her, especially since she was going to go clean something.

* * *

Sandra felt her attention wandering as one of her fellow Elders, Daniel, ranted on. It was poor conduct for her not to listen, but Daniel was almost another Odin. The Twice Blessed had been missing for nearly three days, and Sandra was truly starting to worry. So Daniel's complaints about a certain half-breed fell on deaf ears, even among the other Elders assembled. Sarah, the tall brunette who seemed to have sided with Seth in these debates, was openly displaying her disinterest with haughty looks and stifled yawns. Seth himself was nowhere to be found though, and Sandra suspected that he was up to something. Oddly enough, Odin was missing too. He was _never_ absent from a meeting, in fact, he was constantly calling unnecessary ones into being. 

There was far too much plotting being done of late for Sandra's liking. Then there was that alternate form of Christopher, what where they going to do about him? She doubted he would be content with sitting up here forever, and this particular incarnation of Christopher Halliwell had a knack for causing trouble.

Eventually, Daniel saw that all his preaching was getting nowhere, so he finally wrapped things up and declared the meeting adjourned. The room was filled with a dazzling light as a dozen Elders orbed out of the Council Chamber as one. Daniel was left standing there dumbly. It was tradition to depart through the golden doors, and the message was not lost on him.

* * *

_Note: Complaints and criticisms are equally_ as welcome as the undeserved praise I occasionally get. Unless it's about grammar or something. I have no beta (though I'm hoping to talk a certain someone into it) so I'm sorry to say you'll just have to deal with it.

_Also, the preview I provided in chapter 12 is still accurate, just a little further away. I think you'll like the new direction Chris is headed in better anyway. _ )


	14. Reunion

_Finally! I know it's been a while, but it's here at last, assuming of course anyone even still remembers this fic...Ah well, I don't have much time, for brooding or otherwise, so I can't bother with the usual over-sized AN that goes here. A huge thank you to History Buff 1990 for beta reading this, and resisting the powerful temptation to correct my grave American misspellings._

**Disclaimer: See the previous 13 chapters...I haven't become horrendously wealthy since then.**

* * *

**Reunion**

Ryan blinked at the frenzied movements around him. He and Paige were standing in a large room made from marble and stone. Bookshelves lined the walls, and tables laden with papers were scattered around the room. The room was buzzing with kids and the occasional adult clad in black robes.

Several kids waved at or called out to Paige as they hurried by. She responded in such a perky fashion that Ryan was slightly unnerved, before turning on him. "This is the library but it's kind of in the middle of the building so everyone comes through here...Anyway, ready to start the tour?"

Before she could drag him off again an attractive girl with expensive looking designer clothes and long blond hair approached them.

"Professor Matthews!" she exclaimed loudly, "I haven't seen you in a while! I haven't seen Wy either!" She said this with a dreamy look, which only intensified when she finally noticed Ryan standing next to Paige.

"And I definitely haven't seen _him_ before!" she whispered as she leaned close to Paige, "He's cute! He's got nothing on Wyatt though! And why is he so red...is he sick or something?"

Paige rolled her eyes. "Well Carmen, I'd say it's because your idea of whispering is audible from at least five feet away...and he's standing right next to us." She sighed. It was bad luck running into Carmen right at the start, Paige figured it would be hard enough already to convince this kid to come here willingly once he saw how bizarre everyone was.

Ryan was blushing and staring hard at the floor, and Carmen was now giggling as she realized that the boy would be fun to mess with. Paige decided to intervene...Carmen kind of creeped her out anyway.

"Look...Carmen, Wyatt is...away, and you know very well that even if he wasn't your not allowed to come within shouting distance of him without supervision. And don't say he's yours, there's more than one Halliwell who would be angered by that." She couldn't help but smile in amusement at the thought of what Piper would say to the remark.

Carmen pouted, but relented. "Fine. You don't have to be so rude about it." Then her face brightened. "Before you go, could you give me Wyatt's number? He must have made a mistake when he wrote it down for me, every time I try it this angry Asian man answers the phone..."

Paige sighed again as she waved her hand toward the girl, saying "Wherever your supposed to be," in an annoyed tone. Carmen instantly vanished in a frenzy of blue light.

Paige turned her attention back her newest housemate. "It's safe to look up now Ryan, _it's_ gone." She said with a wry smile. "That was Wyatt's wannabe girlfriend and full-time stalker. Which is unfortunate because she has the power of verbal hypnosis...so, I advise you to ignore her, everyone does anyway. Now, come on, I'll show you my office."

Ryan mutely followed the bizarre woman, afraid to wonder who or what they'd run into next. He noticed he was attracting a few stares, which didn't seem that odd: In a close-knit and secret community such as this one, strangers were bound to be obvious, even in a crowd. Especially when they gawk at everything around them. He was trying not to but he was overwhelmed. He'd been by himself ever since his mother died, and had no idea that there were so many people like him who had powers.

Ryan couldn't help but envy Chris a little at that moment: He had a nice family, a good school, non-evil powers, and every aspect of his life was magic, so he didn't have to hide anything. If these people were serious about letting him stay with them, then maybe he could have some of that life. Then again, he'd learned the hard way that being too hopeful only led to disappointment.

He realized Paige was leaving him behind and picked up his pace.

* * *

Wyatt barely contained an audible gasp when he sensed his brother drawing closer to him. His evil self was distracted with ranting at his minions, so he hadn't noticed yet, but was sure to soon. Wyatt's grip tightened around the bars of his cell. What the hell was Chris thinking? There was no denying Chris' prowess at matters of stealth, but coming here alone was stupid, and Chris knew it.

After a few suspenseful minutes of waiting, Wyatt heaved a sigh of relief as the Source and his underlings disappeared in a cloud of dark orbs. Chris was very close by now, it was truly a miracle that he hadn't been noticed. It would be an even greater one if Wyatt could keep himself (or their mother) from killing Chris for coming down here.

* * *

Chris had just managed to avoid running straight into a kazi when all of a sudden he felt Wyatt's presence vanish from his mind. He was hiding in a side room and the stupid demon had stopped to chat with another of its kind. Just his luck.

After a moment's hesitation and no contemplation of the risks involved, Chris jumped from the room, pulling an athame from his coat and shot both hands forward. One stabbed the first demon, vanquishing him almost instantly, and the other knocked the remaining demon a safer distance away. Chris regained his balance just as the demon readied an energy ball. They launched their respective weapons at the same time, but Chris' aim proved to be the better: The demon was hit square in the chest, and Chris was left with a wound over his shoulder (which was still far too close to the heart for comfort).

Wincing and silently cursing both his luck and demons, he rushed on clutching his shoulder, hoping it wasn't too late to figure out what had happened ahead. Wyatt had been so close, he couldn't quit now!

Cursing through clenched teeth and moving as quickly as his need of secrecy would allow, he ran past an opening and did a double take. After making his way back, he saw a very worn down looking Wyatt standing in a large metal cage. Both brothers froze for a moment, each looking at the other with wide eyes, before Chris broke the silence.

"Wyatt!" he shouted, not caring who heard him, rushing forward to his brother. He was almost within reach of the cage when he felt a familiar, and dreaded, tingling sensation envelop him.

Wyatt watched, helpless, a terrible sinking feeling washing over him as he saw Chris disappear in a spiral of white lights.

* * *

"Send me back!" Chris roared before the spell had even finished depositing him in the attic. The spell gave his voice an echoing quality, and Piper and Phoebe were looking at him with surprise evident on their faces.

"Excuse me? Who-" Piper began, the beginnings of a spectacular lecture already starting to form.

"Send me back! I found Wyatt! I could almost touch him!" Chris interrupted with a pained look on his face.

This elevated the looks of surprise to shock. Piper was the first to recover, "Not a chance. You shouldn't have been down there in the first place. Phoebe, come up with a spell to send me where he just came from." Phoebe was already scribbling on a note pad.

"That's weird," Chris said, "I can't orb there."

Piper whacked him on the head, "What the hell are you trying to orb there for! Do you listen to anything!?"

"I should still be able to get close though," Chris muttered, and he almost got away before his mother snatched him out of the air.

"Try that again and so help me I'll bind your powers!" She growled. Chris scowled.

"Done." said Phoebe.

"Go fill your Aunt Paige in," Piper said, "and you'd better hope I don't find you down there. Was anyone with him?" Chris shook his head.

"Then we can't afford to wait on Paige, let's go Phoebe". She walked over to her sister and they read the spell out loud before vanishing with the same lights that had ripped Chris away from his brother.

The young Halliwell was torn. At first he'd had no intentions of obeying his mother at all, but now that he thought about it, Paige might be needed. He finally made up his mind, and closed his eyes. Summoning a mental image of his aunt, he orbed out.

* * *

"Mom!"

Piper whirled around in an instant. "Wyatt!" She had found her son!

At first a look of joy was shared between the two, but Piper noticed Wyatt's quickly turn to an expression of terror. "Behind you!"

Phoebe screamed. Piper again whirled around, and her heart stopped. "You..." Blackness encroached upon her vision, the screams of her sister and her son accompanying the darkness as it worked its way into her mind.

* * *

Carmen stomped down the halls of Magic School, headed for the Advanced Spellwork classroom. Professor Matthews was about to receive a piece of Carmen's mind. Orbing her away like that! How dare she! The only reason Carmen was ever nice to that woman was because she's Wyatt's aunt. Maybe if she commanded the hag to orb herself off a cliff she'd be more polite with her powers. She was just about to reach out and knock on the door to the witch's office when she heard a familiar voice issuing from within.

"...We have to hurry, I found Wyatt! No there's no time to tell you, just say the damned spell!"

* * *

Paige was reciting the spell Chris had hastily told her when the door burst open and Carmen flew into the room.

As she finished she took both Ryan's and Chris' hands in her own, thankful the spell was carrying them away before Carmen could interfere. She felt the soft white light envelop her, and then they were gone.

* * *

Carmen dove to the floor and just managed to grab one of Ryan's tennis shoes before the spell launched. For a moment, everything turned white, and then she crashed hard onto cold stone.

She looked up to see a scary looking man in all black holding an energy ball. Behind him she could see Wyatt in a cage, and two women on the floor in front of him.

"I-It can't be," Paige stammered, and Chris barely shoved her out of the way in time to avoid the energy ball. While they both fell to the floor, Ryan raised an arm and loosed a stream of fire toward their attacker, who dissolved into dark orbs. Wyatt yelped and jumped to the side as flames rushed through the bars of his prison.

Chris had recovered, and as soon as the man reformed, Chris sent him flying with a blast of telekinesis. To his surprise, the man vanished and reappeared behind him in an instant, chopping him on the back of the neck with a smirk. As Chris crumpled to the floor a large cloud of orbs condensed in midair into a rock flying straight for the man's face, missing only by inches as he sidestepped. He had an energy ball primed and thrown before the rock had even hit the ground.

Paige cried out in pain as the attack collided with her and knocked her into a wall. Ryan attempted another pyrokinetic strike, but the man easily avoided it and within seconds held Ryan's throat within his grasp. He was just about to crush the life out of the boy when something stopped him.

"_Let go of him!"_ said an eerie voice, it's commanding tone imbued with a supernatural echo. Carmen was on her feet now, and her blue eyes had taken on an icy quality.

The darklighter instantly obeyed. _"Now, orb yourself somewhere far away and forget how you did it."_ He disappeared in a haze of darkness and she sighed with relief.

"Someone get Wyatt out before that guy comes back," Chris said, holding on to the wall behind him and looking unsteady.

"How?" Carmen asked as she helped Paige to her feet, her voice back to normal.

"Ugh, Carmen how did you even get here?" Paige asked.

"I could try melting the bars," Ryan offered.

For answer Wyatt tried to shrink into a corner of the cell.

"Okay, here goes," Ryan said, holding both arms forward and concentrating the surge of fire at the bars in front of him.

Meanwhile, Chris was kneeling by his mother. "Aunt Paige, they need healing,"

"Yeah, well so do I," she groused as she walked over to join Chris, the front of her shirt still smoking. It only took a minute before the golden light had Piper and Phoebe back to normal. When she finished she noticed Chris' shoulder for the first time, and healed that too.

"How long will he do what you told him?" Ryan asked, looking at Carmen as he worked.

"I dunno, it doesn't last long, especially once he's away from me," She answered as she walked up to the side of the cage.

"It's okay Wyatt sweetie, I saved you and I didn't even know you were in trouble!" She reached her arms through the bars to try and hug him. He looked as if he might risk the flames to avoid her. Carmen squealed as she was tugged backwards by an invisible force. Chris stuck his tongue out at her.

Finally, Ryan lowered his arms and the flames faded. "That should be enough, knock them out with something," He said, panting slightly.

Chris waved an arm lazily and the red hot bars crumbled easily. Wyatt delicately stepped over them and right into Piper and Chris who simultaneously crushed him in a hug.

"No fair! They all get hugs!" Carmen pouted as the rest of the Charmed Ones joined in.

Chris broke away first. "Since we can't orb from here, we need to get away fast. There's a room at the end of this hall we can get out from, it's where I came in."

So the seven hurried down the dim passageway. It didn't take long for their luck to run out as they met a pack of demons. Two of them immediately took aim at Wyatt, who tried to orb out of the way, but nothing happened, only a few faint lights swirled around him. Just as he was about to be hit he felt a hand on his shoulder and then he felt as if he was twisting through the air. When he landed he saw dark orbs scatter from his form. The power felt foreign and nearly made him sick. Ryan rushed past him and dispatched one of the demons in a second just as another exploded in front of Piper.

Carmen hid behind Chris as three demons assaulted them. "Can't you tell them to off their selves?" Chris growled as he redirected an energy ball with a flick of his wrist.

"No I can't make anybody hurt themselves, I dunno why," she replied as one demon was vanquished by his own attack.

"What about each other?" Chris asked as he barely stopped an energy ball from smashing into his face.

"Too hard, watch out!" Came the breathless reply from Carmen.Phoebe appeared from nowhere and landed a kick so strongly on one demon's head that they heard his neck snap. Piper and Ryan fished off the last ones and soon they were on their way again, Chris constantly trying to orb, but to no avail.

"Man Wy that guy went through a lot to keep you from getting away, I still can't orb."

Wyatt said nothing.

* * *

The Source paced back and forth furiously. He couldn't remember how to get back! It was if a cloud had settled around his mind, concealing from him an ability he knew he'd been using since infancy. That girl's power had potential. He'd have to make sure to rob her of it before she was killed. He fumed and tried to remember whatever precious knowledge she had hidden from him for a few more minutes before a thought struck him.

"Rancor!" He bellowed. All the shadows of the cavern he was in seemed to fly to the center of the room, where they rose into the air and condensed into a black demon with two wickedly curved horns and menacing claws. Rancor was one of the three archdemons, incredibly powerful beings who answered only to Lord Wyatt.

"Take me back to the war room. Now!" the darklighter very nearly screamed with rage. The demon made a stiff bow and without question they both vanished in a wisp of blackness within seconds.

"Find Wrath and Rot and have them search the area for intruders," The Source ordered as soon as they arrived in his war room. He saw the empty prison before him and with a howl of rage decimated it with an energy ball, before flying from the room at top speed, determined to stop his foes from escaping.

He had severely misjudged their power. He had thought this world's version of himself to pose the only real threat (hence the need to kidnap him), but that girl with them had a very potent ability. And the apparent firestarter had potential. This Chris didn't seem much different from the one he knew in terms of fighting ability, maybe weaker due to inexperience, so he wasn't really concerned about him. He wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating them twice.

Suddenly a thought struck him. Their little procession was surely nearing the boundaries of hi anti-orbing magic. Wait...something was off about that sentence...orbing?

The veil of confusion that insolent girl had settled around his mind was rapidly dissipating. Comprehension soon dawned on him, and a malicious smile spread across his face.

* * *

"Mom go on, we'll hold them off!" Wyatt shouted as he threw an energy ball above him, causing rocks to rain down on the advancing demons. He silently gave thanks that his malfunctioning powers hadn't failed completely, maybe starving himself had helped a little after all. Chris was at his side, trying to keep the demons from getting too close. Piper was distraught because they were immune to her powers, Paige was hurt, and she felt responsible for Carmen, who was too drained from using her power earlier on such a strong opponent to help. Paige's leg was badly damaged from a fireball she hadn't been able to counter, and she was limping between Piper and Phoebe. They still couldn't orb, and the boys were becoming overwhelmed by the demons.

Suddenly, an explosion shook the room, and plumes of smoke surged forward to engulf the witches. When some of it cleared away, they saw a large red demon with spikes protruding from his shoulders holding a Source-class fireball in his hand. With a smirk he tossed it at the group. Chris and Wyatt both tried to force it away with telekinesis, but it was too strong. They leapt to either side as it streaked by, both brothers realizing belatedly that it was going straight for the Charmed Ones. Ryan appeared in front of the sisters in an instant, grabbed the nearest one (Phoebe), and orbed them out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, he still hadn't mastered this power, so they reformed three feet in the air somewhat upside down. This caused shock all around the room.

"Y-You can orb!" Chris said, stunned.

Ryan blinked, standing up with a wince. "I never thought to try since you couldn't...I'm sorry,"

"Don't be, just get us out of here!" Wyatt said as he swung with all his might, catching all five assaulting demons in a surge of telekinetic energy and slamming them into a wall. The red demon was barely down for a few seconds.

"Hurry!" Wyatt shouted as everyone huddled around Ryan. He closed his eyes and tried to picture the attic of the Halliwell Manor. At first, he felt the sensation of lifting away, but then he was abruptly brought crashing back down to the ground. The black clothed man from earlier was standing over them. The red demon and two others, a black one with long, curved horns, and a green one with a glittering black sting on his arm, were standing behind him. The Source sneered at the battered party of witches before him. He raised an arm high over his head and was preparing to cast a massive fireball down on them all when a bolt of electricity collided with him and sent him flying. Chris was standing over family and friends (mostly), smoke rising from his outstretched arm. He panted with the effort, and was a little dizzy, but at least it didn't knock him out this time.

"Ryan...hurry," he wheezed.

Ryan nodded and quickly resumed his efforts. Soon, they had dissolved into a cloud of shadowy particles and departed hostile company. Or so they thought.

"Wrath, Rot, after them!" Lord Wyatt commanded, blood splashing the ground in front of him as he heaved out his orders. The crimson and emerald demons vanished in an instant, and the remaining one helped his master to his feet.

* * *

Leo was ambling about that Manor, rapidly becoming increasingly concerned that he couldn't sense anyone, when he heard a loud thud from above.

When he orbed into the attic, he was greeted with a bunch of groaning and injured (in varying degrees) witches. At first he was relieved, absolutely elated when he saw Wyatt among them, but was alarmed to see that they had been followed. "Rot, kill the Elder, I'll get the rest," said a red demon with a wicked grin.

The other demon smiled in kind and lunged forward at Leo, a large black blade on his arm aimed at the stunned Elder. Leo scarcely evaded the attack, and a large portion of the wall it hit dissolved instantaneously.

Leo's eyes narrowed and he fired a round of lightning into the green demon, who howled in pain but somehow managed to avoid being vanquished. With one foe incapacitated, if not defeated, Leo turned his attention to the other, who was dodging Ryan's flames and Wyatt's Excalibur. Chris was trying to calm a sobbing girl who had acquired a nasty gash running down her side and Piper was helping Paige stand.

"Leo! Heal!" Phoebe cried frantically gesturing around. There were plenty of wounds to be healed.

He set to work, immediately heading for the girl Chris was with because her injury looked serious.

Wyatt, Ryan, and eventually Chris were gaining ground on the red demon, who had lost the better part of a hand to Excalibur and was now sporting several scorch marks. They heard a roar and saw Rot rushing at them. Without hesitation, Chris pooled all the anger (justified or not) into a burst of lightning that nailed the attacking beast, who again hurtled backward and collapsed on the spot.

This time it really was too much, and Chris briefly blacked out. He felt himself falling but then he stopped. He opened his eyes to find that Wyatt had caught him, and Ryan was standing in front of them, holding the red demon at bay while trying to see if Chris was ok.

Finally the demon realized that he was fighting a losing battle, and he teleported over to his fallen comrade, and swiftly departed with him, leaving the very weary forces of good to rest at last.

* * *

After everyone had been healed and some of the excitement had died down, Paige took Carmen home (much to her chagrin, and everyone else's relief), and the adults (after smothering Wyatt in not entirely unwanted affection) retired for the night. Things were finally starting to calm down. Chris had just returned with Ryan, having been to retrieve some of his furniture. It was difficult, but they somehow managed to fit an extra bed and chest of drawers into Chris' room. Ryan had gone straight to bed, but Chris had stayed up a while.

He lounged comfortably in a recliner in the living room, while Wyatt was lying on the couch, and they talked.

Chris wouldn't admit that he'd been terrified over Wyatt, and Wyatt was angry with him for sneaking into the Underworld alone. In the end, Chris called Wyatt overprotective and annoying, and orbed off to bed. But there was no heat in his words, and Wyatt knew Chris was as glad to see his brother again as Wyatt was to see him.

* * *

Chris sighed and sat down heavily on his bed. Ryan was snoring lightly across the room. Odd, he didn't seem like a snorer. _What the hell is a snorer? And how do you seem like one?_ Chris wondered. _I really need some sleep..._

As he reached down to pull off his shoes, he noticed his notebook on the floor. Odd. Even stranger was the fact that it was open to a page containing a spell labeled "_To Reveal One's True Nature_".

As Chris' eyes moved from the notebook to the boy sleeping in front of him, and back again, he felt a twinge of suspicion. But that was quickly overpowered by curiosity, and he was soon on his feet again.

* * *

_I know this has way more OCs than I originally stated it would, but the changed future didn't show up in the series so I really have no choice here...Anyway, I hope it was at least semi-decent._


End file.
